Economy doesn't worry Mobile Internet World attendees: Study

By Dan Butcher

October 24, 2008

Attendees were receptive to ad-supported content

More than half of the attendees at Mobile Internet World said that the state of the economy has had only a "somewhat" negative impact on their business, according to interactive mobile media technology company Azuki Systems Inc.

Azuki conducted a survey at the Mobile Internet World conference in Boston, which gauged the thoughts of content publishers, carriers, Internet properties, ad agencies, analyst firms, hardware manufacturers, software developers and more on hot topics in the mobile industry today, as well as the industry's direction.

"We very much enjoyed the Mobile Internet World event," said John Tremblay, cofounder/vice president of marketing for Azuki Systems, Acton, MA. "The panel sessions seemed well-attended, and we had a constant flow of heavy traffic at our booth on the exhibit floor.

"Discussion topics at the show have also captured the progression of the industry," he said. "For example, the focus is less about on- versus off-deck content, but rather the fact that both will exist, as well as the business models and potential synergies across each."

While the economic environment proved top-of-mind, only 5 percent of total respondents cited that the downturn had a "severe" negative impact on their businesses, and 38 percent reported that their businesses had been unaffected, with 50 percent of carriers feeling this way.

John Tremblay greets attendees at Azuki's booth at Mobile Internet World

Fifty-five percent thought that the economy has had "somewhat" of a negative impact, though not a dire one, and 2 percent reported a "positive" effect.

When asked how the economic downturn would impact the industry during the next 12 months, 73 percent of survey respondents predicted only a "somewhat" negative impact, followed by 13 percent who predicted "no impact."

The good news is that no one envisioned a "disastrously" negative effect.

In times of economic uncertainty and instability, mobile service innovation can help companies achieve competitive differentiation. Companies also see the potential to reduce capital expenditures.

When asked to name the most exciting mobile innovation this year, 23 percent of respondents shared enthusiasm for the iPhone 3G and 15 percent for the Google Android, as well as more than two dozen other breakthroughs including the iPhone App Store, location-based services, new data plans and strides in mobile video.

In addition, many attendees voiced their support for ad-supported content.

In fact, 61 percent would prefer to see ads in exchange for free mobile content. Seventy-one percent of software developers felt this way, as did 70 percent of content publishers.

When asked what they would like their next mobile operating system to be, 41 percent said the iPhone, 19 percent Research In Motion's BlackBerry and 18 percent Google's Android.

Other responses included Symbian at 9 percent, Microsoft Windows Mobile with 5 percent, Linux at 4 percent, Palm with 1 percent and "other" getting 4 percent.

Content publishers leaned more heavily toward Android with 36 percent, while analyst firms were big iPhone fans at 67 percent, as were software developers with 41 percent.

Forty-nine percent of respondents thought that Apple's App Store model would supplant carrier-controlled distribution of applications and on-deck services.

Content publishers felt most strongly that this would be the case, with 67 percent agreeing. Twenty-three percent of all respondents disagreed, and 28 percent were undecided.

Survey responses were collected from 111 attendees of varying backgrounds.

Azuki Systems provides a comprehensive interactive mobile media services platform.

Azuki enables content publishers and mobile operators to build, engage and monetize mobile audiences around rich media services.

The Azuki platform provides everything needed to establish new revenue streams through the delivery of interactive and personalized mobile-content and social-networking services.

"We were pleased to see, despite some impact from the state of the economy, that the mobile industry is viewed as somewhat more insulated from the broader effects," Mr. Tremblay said. "Efforts to view mobile as an extension of broader wired/desktop Web marketing efforts will also help extend the scale achieved there to mobile.

"Finally, respondents confirmed the willingness of consumers to be comfortable with advertising as a means to enjoy their favorite affinity brand on the other two screens," he said.