The New York Times just ran an article entitled, “Cellphones Now Used More for Data Than for Calls.” It’s a great piece and profiles some interesting situations and trends. Take, for instance, this Massachusetts Mom’s summary of her phone usage:
She taps out her grocery lists, records voice memos, listens to music at the gym, tracks her caloric intake and posts frequent updates to her Twitter and Facebook accounts.
The one thing she doesn’t use her cellphone for? Making calls.
“I probably only talk to someone verbally on it once a week,” said Mrs. Colburn, a 40-year-old marketing consultant in Canton, Mass., who has an iPhone.
Her limited voice usage shouldn’t really be a surprise to anyone who is even mildly involved in the mobile industry. Everyday we are seeing new research reports that indicate all the different ways people are using phones other than voice. The NY Times article shared this snippet from CTIA:
The number of text messages sent per user increased by nearly 50 percent nationwide last year, according to CTIA, the wireless industry association. And for the first time in the United States, the amount of data in text, e-mail messages, streaming video, music and other services on mobile devices in 2009 surpassed the amount of voice data in cellphone calls, industry executives and analysts say.
And according to wireless analyst and industry expert Chetan Sharma:
The global wireless market banked $220 billion in mobile data revenues in 2010, accounting for an average 26% of total wireless revenues. That translates into $44.56 billion in data revenue for US carriers, with Japanese carriers putting a solid $32.5 billion on their books and China taking home $20.3 billion in data revenues alone. The US led this group as the fastest growing mobile data market in 2009.
So what does this all mean? Well, for starters, Verizon’s going to need to edit its “Can you hear me now” slogan. 
And beyond that, with devices like the iPad, Android, iPhone and others like them enticing consumers to embrace all that mobile can do, there are tremendous opportunities on the not-too-distant horizon.
We are so excited to announce our partnership with Ascend Media! By leveraging our mobile solutions network, Ascend’s association and event clientele will be able to take advantage of mobile coupons, text promotions and other mobile-based offerings.
BtoB Media Business Magazine’s Sean Callahan wrote about the deal, quoting Ascend’s CEO Cam Bishop:
“Moblico’s technical infrastructure and systems create tremendous flexibility in order to broadcast highly effective advertiser-sponsored SMS messages to a targeted audience. Plus, their mobile couponing capability is an amazing marketing tool that’s very user-friendly to manage as well as for the recipient to redeem.”
Exciting stuff!
SAN FRANCISCO, CA, November 5, 2008 – CogniSign, the worldwide leader in image and video search and contextual advertising technology, today announced that it has named Pierre Barbeau, CEO of Moblico (The Mobile Life Company), to its board of advisors. The company will be drawing upon the former Sprint executive and recognized mobile industry expert, whose achievements include launching the Sprint Picture Mail service, to help drive its growth and global market expansion. This appointment follows the recent formation of CogniSign Asia Pacific, headquartered in Tokyo.
These two milestone developments build upon CogniSign’s strong momentum. With
its award-winning Intelligent Image Recognition Technology, which solves the
problems in image and video search and advertising that are unique to the small
screen, the company was one of only three emerging market leaders selected by
InfoTrends to be highlighted during the two day Digital Imaging Conference 2008 in
Burlingame, CA.
“We are pleased to have Pierre as a part of our advisory board as we bring this
ground-breaking technology to the global market,” said Bryan Calkins, CEO of
CogniSign. “Our newly patented trajectory technology brings the most accurate
search and ad results to the very top. This is how Google won the battle for market
dominance in the text based world, and CogniSign is well positioned to do the same
for image and video search and ad targeting.”
“In the post iPhone world, both image and video content are becoming very
pervasive on mobile platforms,” said Pierre Barbeau. “With the massive potential of
mobile audiences, advertisers will rush to embrace new technology platforms that
can make advertising more engaging and targeted. The increased consumption of
image and video content on mobile devices require ad targeting solutions that can
decipher what a viewer is really experiencing at any particular moment. I am looking
forward to assisting CogniSign as they address this market need.”
To learn more about CogniSign and its offerings, visit http://www.CogniSign.com.
About CogniSign
CogniSign is a technology company providing image and video search product
solutions for Consumer Internet and Mobile markets, based on its award-winning
Intelligent Image Recognition Technology (patents pending). CogniSign is a
privately held company based in San Francisco, California. For more information,
please visit http://www.CogniSign.com.
About Moblico
Moblico (The Mobile Life Company) provides mobile professional services and
software technology solutions. Moblico is a privately held company based in Kansas
City, KS. For more information, please visit http://www.moblico.com.
NOTE: CogniSign, the CogniSign logo, xcavator, xcavator.net, the xcavator.net logo,
and Intelligent Image Recognition Technology are trademarks of CogniSign LLC. All
other company and product names mentioned are used only for identification and
may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
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