• 62% do not yet view their mobile device as an extension of their computer.
• Only 23% feel that they have more or the same level of control over their mobile device as they have over their computer.
• 70% have never downloaded an application to their mobile device.
• 67% want to be able to choose their mobile applications for themselves, rather than have their carriers choose for them.

So basically the consumer says: I know what I want, let me choose and make it much easier to use and earn the trust for me to spend time and money with you/your service.

Trust is a big thing here. The carriers have been shocking numerous consumers with data charges, content providers off-deck have been ripping off customers with unstoppable subscriptions schemes etc. This is changing to the better though. We are getting transparency in pricing and the scamsters are being reigned in. 

The play book going forward must be to offer choice, easy access and most of all “it”, the x-factor for the specific target groups. What can this service/product do for me?, is the question the consumer wants answers to. Fast. In about 3 seconds on your site/deck/ad they need to get what’s in it for them. There is no recipe for this part. Here the gap in conversion can be huge. My experience is that rapid prototyping and adjust as you is what works best.

Currently I am involved in launching Souldate (site in Swedish), a new mobile dating service with localisation. We are adjusting and tweaking the service daily. We started off with pretty scary conversion numbers. A few workdays later we have improved them substantially. In this case will market the service in multiple channels. TV is about all we are not using. Customer registration is done in any of three channels – SMS, wap and web. This means we have to constantly evaluate to see what we should focus on.

But all this work with constant improvements are lost if the  hygiene factors trust and transparency are not in place. Here we all have to pull together to change, blow whistles and make sure we earn the trust of our customers. Without it we can pack up and go home.

It is obvious and common sense. Not in the mobile industry though. I am glad to see there was a “whistleblower” in action at MWC09 the other week. Steve Bell ex-Motorola is pretty bold but right in his statements. Read them here. Thanks Steve!

I feel like broken record sometimes, but this _is_ important. I feel like tearing every mobile service I have been part of creating apart and start all over again. Not a very rational feeling I know. Better maybe to work with what you have and listen to your customers. Make sure to pick up the important hints and ideas they give.

At Acemob , one of my companies in this space, for the last 18 months all changes made to one of our key services Lifestylers are based on support mails from the users. Feels risky at the time, but it is quite satisfactory to be able to offer services our users actually want. Sure, we mess up sometimes and have to reverse some changes. But that is done quickly since we pick up that sentiments pretty instantly since all check customer support mails every day. One risk is knowing if there are enough users out there wanting the feature in question. But that is the smaller of the risks. It is far riskier to sit in your ivory tower and produce what you think is cool. That’s not cool.

Norman Lewis of Wireless Grids asked this brilliant question in the header – Why do we make phone calls? He wants us to look at the social meaning of communication, not only the function. I guess we can say it is a fancy way of saying that the experience is what counts. But it is interesting to put this in the framework of business models as well. We need to have business models that match this view of the social meaning of comminication, the models need to extend beyond the communication instance itself. In one sense flat fee monthly recurring billing is one model that fits this quite well. At least it is a transparent way. At times maybe a bit blunt for the real valuation of each instance when I use a service. Still, it gives you as a consumer the ability to make an active choice – “does this service give me an experience that I think is worth at least what I pay each month for it?”. 

At the core of this thinking is of course the reason why we all have a phone – to communicate with others. The killer app is voice, then comes text. All the other things in the so called mobile internet (hey, why do we say that? It’s the same internet accessed by a mobile device, anyway where was I?) are having a tough time to compete. Historically it has been on the grounds of technical complexity. It has been far too difficult to do anything else than placing a call on a mobile phone. Then when you managed to surf to a mobile site, it turned out you got robbed when you used mobile data. But that has changed. We are not in an all that bad shape today. It is easier and cheaper (often at fixed cost. I am a friend of transparency as you can see) to use the phone for apps and browsing. There are numerous improvements to be made, but we are going the right direction at an accelerated speed.

Back to the question, why do we make phone calls? For all of us developing expereinces for the mobile – be it a mobile marketing campaign, a corporate mobile site, a new community or a casual game – think why would someone use this service? What is the value here? Hear me out, I know you are going “Duhh!!” now. But let’s be honest, when we work in an industry where the legacy mindset has been to market technologies and slap on applications just because they are technically possible to deliver, we should be a bit humble here.

I’ll end with a bow to Seth Godin who recently had a good post on marketing and product development and which comes first. Basically he states that all good products start with great marketing thinking first – then you build the product/service.

So here’s your homework. In no more than half a page asnwer this question about a project you are working on right now: “Why would someone find this new mobile service valuable and worthwhile their time and money?”.

A great discussion on the need for better experiences emerged. You do not need to read much of my blog to realize that this struck a chord with me.

The conclusion is that we need to disrupt the way the gaming, mobile and media industries work in their own silos with old business models.

Wanted: a tv production/format company and a gaming company that want to create history – the first truly integrated and exciting game/experience. Market: world-wide. Potential: the winner takes it all!

You know how to reach me. Let’s get together!