stedavies.com - communications consultant

Connected Internet is reporting that 7% of music bought in the UK this year was downloaded through a mobile service according to the UK Official Charts Company (OCC). It says: “That represents nearly 70,000 chart singles bought every week by people on the move.”

CI even goes as far as to say that mobile phones will begin to threaten the iPod’s global position: “I find this astounding and I think it proves that Nokia’s assertion that its handsets will soon prove a threat to the Apple iPod’s dominance may prove true. I wonder how Apple will counter the threat of mobiles, particularly as many people pay nothing or very little for their handsets – why would you buy an iPod when your ‘free’ phone works just as well?”

Indeed it might, but I believe Apple won’t take it lying down, hence the introduction of the Video iPod, and I’ve mentioned in the past, it won’t be too far ahead until we have the Internet enabled iPod.

But PR and marketers should take note. We’re seeing fundamental changes in how people use the Internet which will no doubt filter down to mobile devices in the coming years as the technology develops and data prices drop.

Let’s be honest, people like my parents aren’t going to be using a mobile for anything else but talk and text, but today’s youth are already using their phones for much more. These latest figures are a good example.

At best: Marketers should be spending quality time into research and development of new mobile technologies – figuring out how new advancements can fit into communication objectives.

At least: They should be keeping an eye out or, as they say, catch up or catch you later.

To quote Brian Fling (again): “There are 1.5 billion mobile devices in the world today, more than three times the number of PCs. As the devices increase capabilities and networks get faster, consumers are using mobile devices more and more for common computing and information gathering tasks.

“With the mobile product lifecycle is moving twice as fast as computers at their peak ten years ago, mobile publishing will soon be a requirement of doing business.”

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music+downloads, ipod, mobile+phones, cell+phones, mobileweb