I'm sure some of you have seen news about these latest offerings from Virgin and Clearwire, needless to say, all you can eat data isn't dead yet. I have a complicated relationship with communication technology. I have an iPhone, an all you can eat account at Skype, and a Google Voice account. At any time if I'm calling you (or you're calling me), I'm answering on my dead as door nails iPhone with lousy coverage (all the rumors about ATT in SF are...

It gives me great pleasure to introduce mBlox's latest white paper "The Role of SMS in Business Communications". This paper takes a horizontal approach to promoting the Power of Text Messaging by providing real case studies of in-market deployments. Learn how SMS is improving business communications, customer service and marketing! Contents: Introducing SMS The Multichannel Communications Spectrum SMS in use today: - Mobile Banking &...

Last week the Washington Post highlighted an excellent use of SMS. Reston Hospital in Virginia uses text messaging to keep emergency room patients updated on how long the wait times are. Anyone who has ever been to an emergency room knows it can be a very frustrating experience. Nobody, and especially not anybody who needs medical attention, likes sitting in a waiting area for hours before getting the help they need. By simply adding this SMS se...

I tackled the mobile advertising industry in my last post. Having heard that SMS marketing is in a resurgence in the UK and Europe, I'm tempted to revisit my old stomping ground - what we seem to call mobile marketing, as opposed to advertising. Direct-to-consumer SMS marketing has been around for nearly ten years in Europe now, so you'd think there would have been some lessons learnt by now. Unfortunately, the majority of  those providing these...

It’s no secret that text messaging is a favorite pastime among teens. In fact, just about every middle or high school age student I’ve encountered recently has had their eyes glued to their mobile devices and thumbs on the keypad. I came across a study the other day that had some pretty interesting statistics about just how much SMS plays a part in the lives of teens. Among other findings, the survey showed found that 72% of teen cell phone use...

Time for the FCC to step up to the plate              We haven’t come very far in the five years since the FCC released its Policy Statement on Internet regulation.  The Policy Statement didn’t create any enforceable rules.  It didn’t impose any regulations.  Instead it announced that the FCC’s Internet regulatory role would be guided by noble principles to make sure the Internet developed as a consumer-centric open infrastructure, where creat...

I’m sure you’ve all noticed the recent activity like Exact Target acquiring CoTweet, Constant Contact acquiring NutshellMail and Unica Corp’s partnering with Mobile Messenger. This leads me to wonder – is being multichannel the “new black?” Waterfall Mobile works with many ESPs (e-mail service providers) and technology companies, and we frequently discuss the future of the business.  And the consensus from those conversations is, yes, marketers...

Chegg, an online textbook rental service that provides textbooks to more than 6,000 colleges and universities nationwide, needed a way to reach students on-the-go. The company turned to the power of text messaging and mobile web and made renting textbooks easier than ever before. The company unveiled a new mobile SMS system for checking prices by looking up the book’s International Standard Book Number (ISBN). By texting ISBN and the book’s num...

Post by Distimo co-founder Ruben Heerdink Last week, turn-by-turn navigation app company Navigon discounted all their navigation apps in the Apple App Store by 50%, to celebrate the first anniversary of its MobileNavigation iPhone apps in the App Store. MobileNavigator is one of most popular turn-by-turn navigation application for the iPhone. Navigon claims that they have sold more than a million iPhone apps on the App Store and is currently o...

Oracle fired it's first unfriendly salvo since acquiring Sun last Thursday, filing a federal lawsuit against Google for alleged infringements by Android of Oracle's Java ME open source license.  The filing is requesting the immediate blocking of distribution of Android, so its serious. As an Android fan, this is not good news.  To companies such as HTC, Motorola & Verizon this could be very bad news! Let's hope Google can mount a solid def...

It has been an interesting week from a business perspective but every now and again events happen that make you consider if you could be doing more to assist the community. Yesterday whilst driving to a meeting I was flagged down by a elderly gentleman. I stopped only to discover the poor gentleman's passenger had collapsed and he needed help. I am not an expert paramedic or anything like that but I know the basics.  The major problem was I didnt know where I was. When calling 999 from my Android phone it took ten minutes of negotiation with the emergency services as to my location. After 2... Read More