Mobile, Mobile Everywhere… But, Hopefully, You Knew That Already

Mobile continues to be a hot topic, and a bevy of interesting information sources have hit the web this week. Here is the run down of what caught my eye:

First , Research magazine has a report on the latest legislative issue to cause a stir in the U.S. MR industry: Draft privacy bill poses major challenges to research industry. The MRA is tackling the issue, but it sounds like it could be a serious challenge for traditional quant methods, including the burgeoning mobile channel. On the flip side, initiatives like this could help reinforce the value of emerging techniques like MROCs, Social Media monitoring, and research gaming.

Next, our good friends at GlobalPark have released a nice little primer package on mobile research. You can register to download the “Mobile Research Success Pack” here.

The folks at Admaven have posted the results of an interesting study on how Millennials view smartphones under the headline Millennials Spend More Time and Money On Smartphones, View Them As Competitive Advantage.  The bottom line is explained thus:

It’s finally time to tap the masses of notoriously hard to reach Millennial wallets, and smartphones will provide the bridge to do so. Average time spent on these mobile devices is about to go up. Way up. When selecting ad platforms, look for those that are providing superior experiences. The future of these systems has already been solved in other parts of the world, and though all markets are different, it won’t hurt to take a look outside your borders for inspiration. The smartest marketers will be ahead of this already fast-moving trend – shifting significant budget to rich and innovative mobile advertising before the research reports hit.

If this is where advertising is going to migrate (and all indications are that it is), then research better get there too. This is a good example of how MR should be looking outside of our industry for innovation.

Finally, WARC has a good article on the smartphone revolution, this time focused on Asia Pac. The meat is in the first few paragraphs:

Smartphones are gaining in popularity in Asia Pacific, suggesting this channel is becoming an increasingly important way for brands to engage with consumers.

According to Canalys, total smartphone shipments in Asia Pacific will rise by 53% to 76.7 million units in 2010, a figure that should reach 100 million in 2011.

The research firm also forecast that the region would become the largest single outlet for this new generation of devices by 2012, when it is forecast to deliver 36% of sales.

China overtook Japan as the biggest market for these technologically-advanced handsets in Asia Pacific in 2009, with 16.3 million units being sold in the country in all.

With Asia Pac also being a huge growth market for MR from a client demand standpoint, as well as a rapidly developing hub for BPO support for the global industry, look for an explosion of growth in mobile research and MR innovation in general from this region in the immediate future.