New iPad from Apple: Have you seen it yet?

All the buzz this week has been about Apple's new iPad. What do you think about it? Will you go out and buy one when they hit the stores?

I'm sure most of the early adopters and techie people will jump at the chance to buy one, especially since Apple has priced them in an affordable price range. But how do you think business-to-business applications may use this new tool? Right now, most of my clients are still PC based and use a Blackberry rather than an iPhone for text messaging and retrieving e-mails. So, do you think this technology will be widely used in businesses at some time in the future?

I, for one, can see it being a great tool to display my portfolio or provide a really beautiful presentation when I'm pitching a client. And, also as I am sitting in a meeting, I can take notes using the word processing capability of Pages. I, of course, being in the marketing and advertising profession, am an Apple fanatic, anyway.

But, I see this technology going even further at some time in the future. Think of all the applications that can be written for such a device. Wireless and portability are the wave of the future. Even Steve Jobs said, "Apple is a mobile devices company" in his keynote speech when he introduced the iPad on January 27, 2010. The new tablet is positioned as a product in between the iPhone and the laptop. I'm not saying your desktop computer is technology of the past but mobility is definitely the buzzword of the future.

Mobile Marketing Expenditures on the Rise

Here's a good article on mobile marketing from Hank Mondaca. On his blog, The Mobile Marketer, Hank charts the growth of mobile advertising for the next five years. While mobile advertising has been slow to catch on, the prediction is that budgets will steadily increase.

Click on the link to The Mobile Marketer to read the complete article.

Mobile Marketing: The Trend of the Future

Can you imagine getting rid of your desktop computer altogether and just sporting a hand-held device? Sort of sounds like one of those "communicator devices" on the early Star Trek TV shows, doesn't it? Well, we may not be far off from that fantasy.

More and more people are using Blackberries, iPhones and the like to receive their news, get maps and directional information, or to download music. So, how can marketers use this mobile mania to market their products? Well, you do need to be careful, because of the high costs of receiving messages, some of your customers may not want to receive advertisements. So, tread with caution.

There are various ways you can purchase advertising. SMS advertising is commonly defined as "ad units that appear appended to other published content. The ad unit can either be static (no action can be taken by the end user) or dynamic (user can act on the message)" according to the Mobile Marketing Association. Think of SMS advertising in terms of text-based advertising on the Internet. Usually you are paying for ad impressions and are purchasing as CPM.

MMS Advertising, on the other hand is defined as "ad units that appear inserted into other content. The ad unit can either be static or dynamic (clicking through or responding)" according to the Mobile Marketing Association.

What seems to work today is couponing. Very similar to how people are using Twitter and Facebook. Specifically for retail outlets, couponing seems to be very effective especially if people have signed up to receive your company's information. Restaurants and retail stores have used this type of mobile marketing to their benefit. They can keep their followers informed of specials, menus, or sales programs.

Mobile marketing may not quite be the ultimate marketing tool yet but it is growing. Most of the phone company providers are also understanding the needs of their customers. So, they are designing data plans to help relieve their customers of sticker shock when they receive their mobile phone bills.

So, you may want to add this marketing tactic as part of your marketing plan. As with all of the new technology, it seems that you just have to experiment and try it to start feeling comfortable. And by testing, you'll know what works best for your company.