2008 ‘key year’ for mobile says mobile telecoms giant
T-Mobile announced a partnership with Yahoo! that will allow them to show banner adverts on T-Mobile’s Web’n'Walk portal.
I’ve been using The Mobile Internet (in addition to The Computer Internet) for a couple of years now. I only really use it when I’m very bored or I’m not able to get on to The Computer Internet. It looks like these ads will only roll out across the Web’n'Walk portal, which is still stuck in 1998 back when brands believed that people actually want to use generic portals. Could it be that the only reason people go to the Web’n'Walk portal is because it’s almost impossible to change your home page?
Apparently, “mobile advertising will be enormous for the industry”, but I think many advertisers, particularly for eCommerce would have trouble buying media on The Mobile Internet if there is no measurable goal i.e. the user can’t use their credit card on The Mobile Internet. Until the telecoms stop charging 40% on reverse SMS and come up with an appropriate payment mechanism, eCommerce will not be getting on board. And that ultimately means that the market wont get any traction.
The thought of blinking punch-the-monkey banner ads springs to mind. There is limited screen estate as-is, it’s like using The Computer Internet but through back-to-front binoculars. Fudging the user’s experience up with invasive, targeted banner adverts is a sure-fire way to ensure that 2008 is NOT the ‘key year’ for mobile Internet.
Cheers Fiona.
Hi Fiona,
You say people only use the web’n'walk homepage because it is almost impossible to change, this isn’t true, it is very simple to change your homepage (on the devices I’ve tried). Its just a settings change that will take less than a minute to do!
However I think people continue to use the home page because it is quick and easy to use. T-Mobile have changed their homepage recently and now I have my ebay account linked directly to my homepage so I can see what I am doing with my bids; its excellent. Plus it has direct links to my hotmail account and you can get news feeds and other stuff there too.
I’m not sure how I will feel about the advertising; as long as its not intrusive I probably wont mind, but it wont stop me from accessing the web via my mobile and via the t-mobile homepage.
Thanks
Helen