July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

You can sum up Forrester’s prognostications on 2013 mobile trends in three little words: This changes everything.

Well, duh.

Mobile phones are already well on their way to replacing cameras, cash, maps, remote controls, handheld gaming systems, boarding passes, tickets, cash registers, calculators, notepads, and much more. And they’re becoming globally ubiquitous: 1.6 billion phones were shipped last year; and by the end of this year, 1.4 billion smartphones will be in use.

So the question is not so much what smartphones can do, it’s what can’t they do. And the strategic imperative for organizations is to understand how they are going to meet the challenge of that change.

A week after sharing its vision of the top 15 emerging technologies, Forrester shared its view of the near future of mobile in analyst Thomas Husson’s report, released today.

Here are the top 10 implications for mobile, according to Husson:

Mobile becomes a strategic priority

1. Marketers will realize that mobile requires a total shift in marketing approach.
   This is one of the reasons Google baked mobile into AdWords by default, one of the biggest changes in AdWords in five years.
2. Tablets will be the biggest short-term disruptors.
   Advertisers like marketing on iPhones and Android smartphones, but iPad ads command the biggest premium.
3. Mobile platforms will catalyze next-generation connected experiences.
   We’ll see more technologies like fitness trackers that know what you’re doing without you having to tell them, or a smartphone app that lets you control your home from Tokyo.
4. Smart apps powered by big data and sophisticated analytics will help us complete tasks.
   Think a Siri from Apple that is more than just a cute add-on and that actually becomes a valuable personal assistant.
5. Mobile will play a leading role in engaging consumers in emerging markets.
   75 percent of all new phones are being sold in Asia and Africa. That might change something …

Mobile investments must rise

1. Mobile will require more formal organization, processes, governance.
   BYOD rocks, but IT is getting fed up of supporting what it cannot manage.
2. Leading marketers will take back ownership of mobile from agencies and vendors.
   You can’t outsource core, and mobile is becoming core. So you’ve got to learn from the best and bring at least some expertise in-house.
3. The role of mobile marketing manager will emerge.
   If Google needs a mobile marketing manager, why don’t you?
4. Finding the right strategic mix of staff will rise in importance.
   Even more than in other areas, you need the right blend of business, marketing, design, and technology expertise to succeed in mobile.
5. Spending will increase to enable mobile services.
   Mobile marketing has been a bit of a bargain, but as it’s become core, that’s changing. Technology and staffing costs are going up.

Husson will be discussing these trends in a free webinar on February 18 at 2PM UK time, 9AM New York time, and 6AM (ugh) San Francisco time.

photo credit: Rev Dan Catt via photopin cc

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

It’s not too shocking to think that Apple’s next iPhone will leapfrog last year’s iPhone 4S in sales — the real question is by how much.

Based on a recent survey of 2,000 consumers, Robert W. Baird analyst William Power predicts that Apple could sell more than 50 million iPhone 5 units in the U.S alone, Barrons reports. That’s a pretty big leap from the 37 million iPhone 4S units Apple sold worldwide during its launch quarter last year.

The Baird survey found that 39 percent of respondents were eligible for a phone upgrade (6 percent will be eligible in three months), and of that cross-section 45 percent planned to purchase an iPhone. Meanwhile, only 22 percent of potential phone buyers wanted an Android device (and 31 percent were still undecided).

The disparity isn’t surprising: An insurmountable amount of hype surrounds the iPhone 5 now, while I can’t think of any comparable Android device releases coming anytime soon (though maybe Motorola could change our minds when it unveils the Droid Razr HD). At this point, I can’t help but feel prematurely sorry for Nokia’s upcoming Windows Phone 8 devices, which will be announced in early September (likely a week before the iPhone 5).

Power’s survey also found that iPhone users were the most loyal to their platform, with 77 percent saying they’d buy another iPhone. Only 48 percent of Android users said they’d be sticking with Google’s platform. Notably, 17 percent of current Android owners were interested in jumping ship to the iPhone.

Another interesting find: The survey noted that 51 percent of consumers were interested in an Amazon smartphone, while only 7 percent wanted a Facebook phone. Judging from reports, Facebook is indeed working toward building some sort of phone, though I really don’t think it needs one.

Apple is expected to announce the iPhone 5 (or whatever it ends up being called) at a September 12 event, with a release to follow on September 21. That date seems particularly solid now that we’ve heard Verizon and AT&T are blocking out vacation times for employees around September 21.

iPhone 5 mockup via iLabFactory

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

New estimates from Wall Street analysts suggest Apple registered more than 3 million pre-orders for its newest smartphone, the iPhone 4S, after selling the device for one weekend.

Apple announced this morning it registered pre-orders for more than 1 million iPhone 4S phones in 24 hours, well beyond its previous record of 600,000 phones. New estimates peg the initial weekend’s sales to be somewhere north of 3 million, according to RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky. That means Apple could sell more than 25 million iPhones in its fourth operating quarter this year, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said.

The last time Apple launched an iPhone, it was only available on AT&T. Apple opened the iPhone 4 up to Verizon Wireless in February this year. This time around, Apple is launching the phone on the three largest wireless carriers in the United States simultaneously, with the addition of Sprint. The iPhone 4 sold out in around 17 hours when it launched on Verizon Wireless in January. It also sold out in less than 24 hours on AT&T when it launched in June last year.

The iPhone 4S sports significant hardware upgrades, though it looks identical to the iPhone 4. The phone runs Apple’s A5 dual-core processor and reportedly has more memory. It also has an 8-megapixel camera, compared to the iPhone 5′s 5-megapixel camera. Apple normally releases a new phone every year, but the company atypically released the iPhone 4S later this year, just after its most recent operating quarter ended September 25.

Pre-orders for the iPhone 4S began Friday last week. The company will start shipping the phone this Friday Oct. 14. It’s available with a new 2-year contract for $199, $299 and $399 for the 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models of the phone respectively. The phone is available on AT&T, Sprint and Verizon Wireless.  The iPhone 4S will make its worldwide debut October 14 in United States, Australia, Japan, Canada, France, Germany and the U.K.

Citadel Securities analyst Shing Yin said it was unlikely that the two existing iPhone carriers, Verizon Wireless and AT&T, would try to stop Apple from adding the iPhone to Sprint’s repertoire. Sprint charges around $30 per month for an unlimited data plan, although some of its higher-tier plans include unlimited data as part of the package. Yin said it was likely that Sprint would get the iPhone sometime before Christmas.

Sprint is one of the last major wireless carriers still offering an all-you-can-eat wireless plan. Verizon will kill its own data plan on Thursday in favor of tiered plans ranging from $10 to $80 per month. AT&T killed its unlimited data plan last year amid complaints about its wireless network’s performance in large cities like New York and San Francisco, and now charges between $15 and $45 for tiered data plans each month.

The iPhone 4 currently retails at $199 for a 16-gigabyte model and $299 for a 32-gigabyte model, and both require a contract with wireless providers AT&T and Verizon. That puts the phones out of the price range of many devices that run Google’s operating system, Android, which can cost as little as $50. Apple currently sells an 8-gigabyte model of the iPhone 3GS, the phone manufacturer’s last generation phone, for $50 in order to hit that market point.

We’ll be exploring the most disruptive mobile trends at our fourth annual MobileBeat 2011 conference, on July 12-13 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. It will focus on the rise of 4G and how it delivers the promise of true mobile computing. We’re also accepting entries for our mobile startup competition at the show. MobileBeat is co-located with our GamesBeat 2011 conference this year. To register, click on this link. Sponsors can message us at sponsors@venturebeat.com.