This is a copy of the blog article on http://www.PeterBuick.com

Dear Luca & Vodafone UK.

reference your debate on
http://wurfl.sourceforge.net/vodafonerant/index.htm

We represent several publishing houses and we are greatly concerned by Vodafone removing support, for what is, for all intensive purposes, an industry standard, namely UA http headers.

I can see no advantage to meddling with existing standards.

If you want to try to enhance the Vodafone clients experience, then add additional headers, which people who want to play with Vodafone can adopt. But you can not and should not block other publishers who do not want to, or cannot, play the Vodafone way. So I am talking about a tag addition, not a tag pre-requisite.

But there is no benefit in Vodafone trying to play mobile God. Like life, we do not all worship the same religions, but we all need to co-exist peacefully.

Content is king and Vodafone is damaging their own clients experience and access to this valuable/desirable content.

Publishers like our consortium, will ultimately merely block Vodafone and concentrate on the remaining 72% of the market. But that would be a loss to everyone!

In addition, on our own field trials with the Vodafone re-purposing engine, the results were simply not acceptable. Laughable on many. Unusable on most. So the user experience can not be dictated by Vodafone. The publishers must be allowed to deliver the most suitable content for the device, using the existing standards.

Whilst trying to make the desktop web surfable on a mobile is plaudable and brave, it must not be a dictate methodology which destroys all of the “specific mobile” versions, which publishers like ours produce. We know the devices, we know what content to provide. There is no benefit to Vodafone trying to second guess what we are trying to deliver.

If there is a whitelist, where is it, why isn’t this more publicly available and why isn’t it updated “LIVE”.

Vodafone, as a member of .Mobi, I can’t see how this follows that ethos either.

To not support/pass UA, makes all devices blanket vanilla, and then all we can deliver to a Vodafone device is the worst possible base level (lowest common denominator) content.
I’m not sure how Vodafone or their clients would see that as a benefit!

Peter Buick.
K2k Group.

This post now appears on 2 of my own blogs.
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You might also enjoy these other mobile marketing related blog sites, but don;t forget that only Marketing Chaps provides Visual SMS mobile publishing and marketing campaign SMS broadcasting, with our unique angle and high value service.

Check them out…

I want one, but why?

The latest thing from Apple is the Apple iTouch. The guts of the iPhone without the (non 3G) phone bit. But it still does web via Internet mobile!

How does it do mobile web then?It uses WiFi!

So as long as you ar estandin gin Starbucks, or somewhere where there is a WiFI connection, you are surfing and for free, with no Telco charges, Internet mobile, WAP per minute/MB, or anything.

So why did I hesitats to order one?

Well i don’t spend much time in Starbucks. None actually! So removing the mobile Internet/web part for a moment, it’s a very underpowered desktop Apple Mac (still tempting) and a glorified MP3 and video player on a 3.5″ screen for just under £200.

Do I still want one/ Yes of course!

But I don’t need another MP3/video player.
I certainly don’t need a local area (WiFI) phone.
And I don’t really need to watch video, or anything on a 3.5″ screen, and if I did, it would give me a distorted view of what mobile graphics was about!
Until they can fit a 3.5 inch screen in a handbag, the mobile industry needs to think small

But if you need a very lovely MP3 player, then visit the UK Apple Store to buy your own Apple iTouch mobile Internet WiFi Pod touchy feely thingy….

New Media spend by B2B marketeers is up 11.5% for 2007, according to a new survey conducted by the ANA (Association of National Advertisers) and BtoB Magazine in partnership with Guideline Inc. (B2C is only at 3%)

B2B new media usages outstripped B2C use by 4 to 1 (20% to 5% of total media budget).

Whilst a large proportion of spend (50%) was on established channels like website and email, all 15 of the new media platforms were surveyed, including social networks, podcasts, and blogging, proprietary websites, email marketing, and user-generated content.

The survey, More on New Media spend up 11.5% by B2b marketeers

AYPK the Apple iPhone is significant for the mobile marketing industry for several reasons.

One of them being it will provide a fairly large audience with a device of known capabilities, which include large (480 x 320) images/pictures, video capability and sound.

Released in August 2007, O’Reilly publishers have not been slow off the mark, to release The Missing Manual by David Pogue. Even more metrics to indicate the significance of the iPhone to the mobile phone marketing industry.

Naturally Marketing Chaps Visual SMS messages support he Apple iPhone format.

Already ranked 142,898 in Amazon UK Books.

ISBN-10: 059651374 £13.99 srp.

Buy Link:

Order now through Amazon.co.uk

Synopsis
“iPhone: The Missing Manual” is a book teeming with More on Apple iPhone - the missing manual

Industry news from Informa Telecom yesterday that Non SMS data revenue was up 39%. The increase varies from region to region, but the overall trend is definitely up.

“Global mobile data revenues from NON SMS data services exceeded US$10 billion in 1Q07 according to WCDM (Informa’s World Cellular Data Metrics). “

“The (combined) total of US$11.3 billion compares with US$8.1 billion in 1Q06.” (which is a 39.5% increase)

Out of the 70 operators tracked in WCDM, the proportion of non-SMS data revenues ranged vastly, from 70% (KTF, Korea) to 1% (Vodafone Egypt).

As they point out in the report, nor is this at the expense of SMS traffic, which is also still growing.

These are both great metrics that mobile phone interaction is continuing to become a main stay of business and life.

The mobile Internet and other mobile data sources are becoming seminal!