You do not need a university education to know that one. Neither is the iPhone the only smart phone in the world. I am getting a little peeved by having to explain this simple but obvious truth and with every new sales call I am asked to attend (frequently becoming fewer unless I am able to contain the tantrums). However, such is the splendid job that our chums in iPhone’s marketing department have done that many would think the Motorola, Nokia and Samsung have ceased to exist. I am not going to attempt to redress the balance created by the iPhone phenomenon but I will only say that there is another world out there. Not only is the empire(s) fighting back but there is evidence that ground is being made up. Whilst I am eternally grateful for the advent of the iPhone – (how else would this mobile world have ignited) – there is a lot more to mobilising your brand than producing a nice looking app.

Mass adoption of the other smart phones by both vendors and consumers from 2010 onwards, coupled with the rollout of app. stores from the same suppliers will engender a much more balanced marketplace. “And not before time” I hear you say but all this market share noise, whilst being very important to Wall St. analysts and the like has very little to do with helping the average brand deciding on what their mobile strategy should be. Every marketing person worth his/her salt should be thinking about using the world’s 4 billion mobile phones to deliver their marketing messages but sadly a disproportional number of them still believe that creating a series of appealing iPhone apps to deliver their messages will be the good fairy in Pandora’s chest. Wrong!

Whilst the mobile phone market is out of recession and growing (at last) the iPhone only accounts for 17% of the touch phone market and 2.7% overall. Now I’m no Carol Voorderman but that still leaves a massive 97.3% of the market using other devices. Therefore, when planning and executing your mobile strategy ensure that you take this into account and allow for the vast majority of your target market. If you are designing applications make sure that they will be consumed by as many people as possible and design ubiquitous campaigns and content. The mobile web is now used by just about everybody so make the most of it.

It is easy to be drawn in by the hyperbole and the appeal of the latest wave of mobile mania but do not restrict your own activities to a single focal point. It’s a big, wide, mobile world out there so make the most of it.

Peter Richards