Since my editor graciously awarded me ability to do whatever I want with my columns once they are published in the magazine I decided to translate this one and put it up here. This is only partially to show off, mainly I wanted to illustrate one thing, same thing that I’m always trying to explain to my geeky friends: you have to learn how to talk to non-geeks.

I write a monthly column for a Polish business magazine, who’s readers consist mainly of mid to large business owners, some journalists, all the members of Parliament and several other politicians. We know our readers base quite well, as a matter of fact we have an almost complete list of all of them, because we sent the magazine of to every single one. This gives a huge advantage over traditionally released magazines when it comes to knowing the details about our readers. What I know is that most of them are not technology illiterate, but not overly competent either, some keep up a bit better, some still need convincing that a good company website is a necessity this day and age.

My job is to indicate new trends in technologies to this audience. In this article it was the growing importance of mobile technologies and marketing. And yes, I know that for my industry-employed friends this is old news, but it is not so to the wider public, even its most influential members. So here comes translation of the article form September issue (you can download the Polish pdf here), which will hopefully illustrate both the audience an how to speak to them.

Internet in the pocket

British mobile provider, O2, together with Barclays Bank and Transport for London conducted a 6 months pilot program O2 Wallet. Five hundred testers, armed with specifically configured Nokia phones went into the city to call, buy (in chosen shops only) and pay for commuting. It’s enough to put the phone near a reader in a shop, gad or tube station and the payment will be deducted from previously topped up account. In the public transport Nokia phones have been using Near Field Communication (NFC) technologies for a while now (also in Warsaw).

O2 wallet is just a one example of fast developing mobile technology. According to the data of M:Metrics the number of mobile Internet users grows constantly. In January this year 8% of mobile users in the European Union used their phone to check e-mail, 28% send or received photos and video files. According to specialists this is mainly due to growing inclusion of data packages in cheaper mobile contracts tariffs.

But what is most interesting 52% of mobile users received some form of advertisement via text messages to their phones. Advertisers start to notice the potential of mobile communication. Together with developing possibilities of identifying Internet users, technologies give a chance of delivering the right advert to a receiver that will be interested in its content. New British mobile platform, called Blyk, is based on utilising this ability. Targeted at users between 16 and 24 years old, Blyk allows them a monthly texts and calls package in return for information about their interests and habits as well as receiving daily dosage of MMS advertisements. At the moment Blyk is in it’s early stages and, with nearly 100 000 users, is a favourite object of industry’s gossip.

Blyk is targeted at young people not without a cause. Mobile giants, like Nokia, also understand the potential of this market, which came to attention more than usually during the release of Apple’s much-hyped mobile phone, the iPhone.

iPhone became a status symbol and is mostly bought due to the fact that it is fashionably Apple branded, however young clients are becoming more and more demanding. To convince them that Nokia phones are equally, if not more cool, the company employed director Spike Lee (”Inside Man“, “25th Hour“), who will cut together a film consisting of clips captured with mobile phones by their users. Lee guarantees youth’s interest in the project as well as validates a simple message: mobile phones are good enough to shot films with them. However disputable this statement might be, the creative approach of Nokia’s marketing is impressive. The company also launched new sharing platform called Ovi, which utilises multimedia abilities of mobile handsets. It is becoming clear that possibilities of mobile technologies are changing the landscape of Internet.

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