Holy moly. Guess what I just read.

According to Nielsen, “the average mobile subscriber in the US sent and received more SMS text messages than mobile telephone calls during Q2 2008.” And on top of that, this is apparently the second consecutive quarter in which this has happened.

According to the table below, mobile users in the 13-17 age range sent 1,742 texts but made only 231 calls this quarter. Kids under 12 sent 428 texts and made only 137 calls.  My age range, the 25-34 bracket, sent an unimpressive 331 texts and made 239 calls. I guess that sounds about right to me. I text a lot, but I talk a lot too. (more…)

I can’t tell you how little I care about sports.

I couldn’t care less that it’s football season, and that’s kind of scandalous if you know anything about me. I really should care about football—I’m from a football-crazed family. And I really should care about Alabama football—I went to UA as an undergrad and played a pretty big role in the team spirit department.

But the thing is, I was always more interested in watching the half-time show and never gave a rip about what came before or after it. And despite the fact that everyone who knows me knows that I don’t care, I still hear the question “What did you think of the game?” and I never know what to say.

What’s the point, you ask. The point is that I just signed up for ESPN’s sports alerts. Why? Because now I can find out who won without actually watching any football at all. (more…)

Hello mobileteers!

I thought you all might find this interesting. I know that I’m always looking for mobile stats, and as far as stats go, this is a good one.

Last week RCR Wireless posted the top ten mobile carriers in the US. Here’s the list with each carrier’s subscriber base:

1. AT&T Mobility     71.4 million
2. Verizon Wireless     67.2 million
3. Sprint Nextel     52.8 million
4. T-Mobile USA     30.8 million
5. Alltel     13.2 million
6. US Cellular     6.2 million
7. MetroPCS     4.4 million
8. Leap Wireless     3.09 million
9. Centennial     662,700
10. Rural Cellular     790,431

For the rest of the article, check out RCR Wireless News.

Good news, mobile marketers! According to Nielsen, mobile commerce is picking up!

This is from Wireless Week:

Nielsen Mobile reported that already 9 million U.S. mobile subscribers say they have used their mobile phone to pay for goods or services, and half of all data users say they expect to participate in mobile commerce in the future. (more…)

Hello everyone! Hope you enjoyed the beautiful weather yesterday. I know I did, and my skin can prove it. It’s as red as salmonella-contaminated tomato.

I haven’t caught up on my mobile marketing research yet, so instead of informing you of the latest mobile news, I thought I share with you two small tidbits from Miss Mobile’s personal life. (more…)

For seven years, I didn’t have a landline phone. As they say in the mobile industry, I had cut the cord. My cell phone and I were free to roam (and believe me, it roamed constantly) across the country. Those were the most telemarketing-free years of my life. Never did I receive a call from a stranger who mispronounced my name and then had the audacity to ask for money. My email may have been full of unwanted solicitations, but my mobile was not.

Until recently. Ladies, gentlemen, I have received text message SPAM. (more…)

Have you ever seen a woman suddenly halt in front of a jewelry store window? An exquisite diamond necklace gleaming in the sunlight has caught her eye. She can’t speak it’s so breathtaking. She stands motionless. Her eyes glaze over. Her hand loosens its grip on her purse. She thinks about what she’d look like wearing it, how it would drape over her collar bone, how the diamonds would catch the light as she brushes her hair off her shoulders. In her mind she receives imaginary compliments but shrugs them off modestly. (more…)

Happy Monday everyone! Miss Mobile here. I just read about the amazing results of Jaguar’s recent mobile campaign. Who knew that you could use mobile to target a specific age range and income level in order to advertise a new product or service? Oh wait, I did. But my name’s Miss Mobile, so that’s pretty much a given. (more…)

Too many people in this industry make grand statements about how mobile-savvy they are….How tapped into the market they are, how they know what users want, how they can tell you the seven best ways to blah blah blah. I know. It’s annoying. Well, here’s one more person to add to that list.

I’m not an expert. I don’t have twenty years experience in the telecom industry. I’m just your average 26 year-old gal living in Atlanta who gets a little panicky when there’s only one bar of battery life left on her cell phone. Enough of the introductions. Welcome to my column.

So much of my life right now orbits around the moderately-sized screen of my RAZR. I have a tendency to exaggerate, so let me prove it to you with a brief but detailed view of my life. (more…)

For each Ask The Expert column, we consult a different industry expert, depending on the nature of the question. Today’s expert is Dale Gonzalez, Air2Web’s CTO. Have a question for the Expert or want to submit someone to be the Expert? Submit it here.

Q: What is a double opt-in? When is it necessary to use? As a content provider, what do I have to do to create it?

A: Great question. I’ll answer it in parts. What is a double opt-in? A double opt-in is a process that ensures that a user wants to participate in your mobile campaign. Usually this is done through text messaging, but it could also be initiated through other channels. Here’s the basic idea… (more…)