Posted by Frances Laing on Wednesday 7 October 2009
More iphones anyone?
With the announcement of the expansion of available networks for the iphone, we look at the potential impact for marketers
Over the last two weeks, we have seen announcements from two networks, Orange and Vodafone to join the iPhone party; I'm interested to see what will happen to the market over the coming months. Poor Vodafone clearly lost out on the deal, as their deal will not start until after the Christmas period, so Orange already have the opportunity to steal a march on them.
For us as consumers, the news can only be good. Greater competition will clearly lead to improved pricing, so I fully expect to see a rapid expansion in the number of people staring diligently at the Apple of their eye in all public places. Those of us who are clearly aligned to their preferred operator will no longer be forced to change networks in order to have some iPhone fun, and be able to benefit from the three network giants slugging out their competition for market share with great deals on tariffs. So what about us as marketers?
Here at breeze we have already had lots of clients determined to get on the iPhone train, developing an app of some description to bring them into the technology era with a bang. Only last week, I was in a workshop with a lovely group of people, talking about strategy, only to hear someone say "why don't we bring out an iPhone app?".
The use of the iPhone clearly becomes more interesting, as the audience will no doubt rapidly increase. However, as the voice of reason, I will still be asking the questions around who is being targeted, what the aims of any app are, and playing devil's advocate as to the chosen channel of delivery. The use of an iPhone application may well still not be relevant for many people - there are plenty of examples of apps that have been developed without enough care and attention in terms of their purpose within a marketing strategy. They are interesting for a fleeting moment (in the grand scheme of things) but then gone, lacking on-going interest and relevance to the user.
So before you jump on the bandwagon, take a moment to think. If you need some help, by all means give us a call. We love the iPhone - but we love lots of other things too!