CTIA Wireless 2010 Scorecard: Mobile content

Whose profile is rising? Location

While mobile services offer consumers a truly global experience, more than ever subscribers are thinking local. One of every three mobile search queries received by Google now includes some element of local-specific intent, according to the digital services giant's director of mobile advertising, Diana Pouliot. Speaking at the daylong Mobile Marketing and Advertising event held on the eve of CTIA Wireless 2010, Pouliot cited location as one of four primary catalysts driving the mobile opportunity, alongside information ubiquity, the mobile Web and cloud computing, and audience engagement. "Mobile drives action," Pouliot said. "We've seen explosive growth over the last three years." Google's mobile search and location services are spearheading that growth, Pouliot noted--the company's mobile search traffic has increased five times in the last two years, and its Google Maps for Mobile solution now boasts more than 50 million active users.

Arguably the most innovative application introduced at CTIA Wireless 2010 was Yahoo's Sketch-a-Search. Optimized for Apple's iPhone, Sketch-a-Search enables users to draw a boundary on the touchscreen device's map to discover local businesses with the established area--the app initially covers U.S. restaurants, complete with ratings, reviews and directions, but additional merchant verticals and markets are in the works. Of course, location-based mobile services aren't simply about finding out where you're going--they're also about being found where you are, and connecting with friends at local bars and events. Heading into the conference, the buzz was all about location-enabled mobile social networking services like Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt and Brightkite--Foursquare alone is adding roughly 50,000 new users each week, and Microsoft announced it will begin incorporating tips and comments from Foursquare users into its Bing Maps tool.

Now advertisers are looking to monetize the trend. But despite growing excitement around location-specific mobile advertising efforts, experts said that at present traction remains negligible, with the emphasis still on experimentation, not implementation. "We're still in the experimental phase in terms of trying to figure out the value of the location component," said Valhalla Partners principal Saj Cherian, speaking on the "Evolution of an Ecosystem: How Technology Influences Marketing" panel. "The marketplace still needs to figure it out," he explained, adding that individual operating systems and application segments are each taking their own approaches to determining how best to integrate location into the mobile user experience.

MindMatics CEO Kai Buehler said despite its slow start, location is the differentiator that will drive the growth of mobile advertising. "Location-based advertising offers a plethora of new opportunities," he said. "The problem is that retailers haven't embraced it yet." Motorola Vice President Ingrid Kelly agreed, noting, "There's a fear in the market that pushing coupons to phones is a little Big Brother-ish. Big brands like McDonald's and Starbucks need to get out there." Another obstacle, according to Cherian: Integrating mobile technology into retail point-of-sale solutions.

Still, the consensus is that the mobile industry has only scratched the surface on location. In the wake of announcing its first 3G/4G smartphone, HTC's Android-powered Evo, Sprint is already touting a new generation of applications and communications tools that simultaneously bring together features like location, presence and video. "4G enables a different kind of multimedia experience," said Sprint VP of Consumer Marketing David Owens. "Developers already know and like Android, and with 4G, they can go crazy with bandwidth-intensive apps."

Whose profile is falling? Mobile entertainment

Traditional mobile entertainment continued its slow fade to black as CTIA Wireless 2010 instead focused on mobile social networking, location-based services and other more immersive, interactive user experiences. Even Billboard's annual Mobile Entertainment Live! event was on hiatus this time around, its usual Monday pre-show slot filled by the new Mobile Web and Apps Forum as well as a daylong Mobile Marketing and Advertising seminar. Timing also played a role in the relative scarcity of mobile entertainment-themed announcements and deals: With Apple poised to release its iPad tablet device on April 3, it appears many content kingpins are gearing up to launch new digital media initiatives tied to the platform, relegating their conventional mobile efforts to the backburner, at least temporarily.

Perhaps the most intriguing mobile entertainment news to emerge out of CTIA Wireless 2010 was Fox Mobile Group's Bitbop, a subscription-based service enabling consumers to view premium content on their smartphone for $9.99 per month. According to Fox Mobile, Bitbop offers a catalog of full-length television programs for streaming or temporary download (think Hulu for mobile), with support for both 3G and WiFi. Speaking of subscription services, AT&T introduced AT&T Music, which integrates song and album downloads, streaming radio, song match, lyric search and an enhanced media player. It's available for $6.99 per month to subscribers on unlimited data plans; song and album purchased are billed a la carte.

In mobile television news, Verizon Wireless will partner with Univision Interactive Media to offer live streaming Spanish-language coverage of this summer's 2010 FIFA World Cup soccer tournament, kicking off in South Africa on June 11. Mobile broadcast solutions provider MobiTV also announced an agreement with T-Mobile USA to preload its live mobile television application on the operator's exclusive HTC HD2. Thanks to the deal, MobiTV's mobile media services are now available across all four major U.S. operators.

And even though the mobile entertainment segment seems moribund right now, that could change dramatically in the near future. Appearing on a CTIA keynote roundtable alongside co-founder Biz Stone and U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy CTO Aneesh Chopra, Academy Award-winning filmmaker James Cameron extolled the virtues of the evolving mobile video experience, noting that the next-generation 3D technology introduced in his big-screen blockbuster "Avatar" is uniquely optimized for mobile screens as well. "When the screen is small enough, you don't have to use [3D] glasses," Cameron explained. "With a single user, the lenticular screen is oriented for perfect 3D." He also feels the web and mobile can complement the theatrical experience, not cannibalize it, provided filmmakers deliver entertainment that can only be fully enjoyed on the silver screen. "Some people just want accessibility and portability," Cameron said. "But with certain entertainment, you want something else."