Obama Administration taking a closer look at the wireless industry

The wireless industry has grown rapidly, essentially built on consumer demand, existing infrastructure and "guidelines". The FCC is now taking a closer look at the industry and the CTIA is in the hot seat.

MocoNews Reports

As the Obama administration becomes more determined to bring additional scrutiny to the wireless industry, the CTIA is getting ready to defend themselves against the criticism.

On Thursday, the FCC will host a meeting to consider three inquiries into the wireless practices, including billing methods, exclusive handset arrangements and other ways the industry can become more competitive. Christopher Guttman-McCabe, VP of regulatory affairs at the CTIA, told ComputerWorld that the CTIA expects the FCC to go forward with the inquiries, and that the association will likely be given an opportunity to testify against the criticism at a later date.

Read the full article here: http://moconews.net/article/419-wireless-industry-prepares-to-defend-itself/

Obama's Healthcare loss... failure to exploit his assets

 

Why isn't the Obama administration using mobile to shape the healthcare debate?

 

Obama’s challenge with mobile is the same as for many marketers. Generating interest in the initial campaign can generate huge follow on opportunities, but maintaining a dialogue with a consumer which they perceive is valuable can get tough pretty quickly. And yet, this is where brand loyalty is cemented and brand zealots are born. Consumers demand some form of value in a dialogue. During the Presidential Election the value was really worthwhile: “change”, now continued investment is required to continue to provide a valuable exchange with the consumer.

 

Obama has a significant database of voters which he can communicate with, but he needs to move from the existing political dialog and move to engaging us in supporting his policies, by doing things such as:

• Devise a true 1-to-1 dialogue with the people, which can help dilute the power of lobbyists and provide some tangible steps that help people know what action to take.
  

• Send a viral TXT message which loyalists can pass on to friends and relatives containing a link to a video which they can watch to hear Obama's side of the debate.  This could make it into the hands of tens of millions of people if the viral effect came into full force.  

• Send a blast-out SMS with a link to a really useful and informative wap site, sharing Obama's recommendation on the health debate.  The wap site could have a calculator allowing people to see how they or their family members would be affected by the proposed changes.

• Provide an iPhone app calculator which does the same and calculates the health care costs under the different plans being considered.

 

The goal is to create the crucial conversations not just between Obama and voters, but between loyalists and their friends, colleagues and families, where some real value and information is exchanged in both directions. After all one-to-one is the promised power of mobile right?

Dave the Shoe Guy goes Mobile

 

You know when a new media discipline is entering the mainstream when 'Dave the Shoe Guy' is evangelizing it!

Dave Sheehan is a ladies shoe salesman in Chicago, IL. He says: “My strategy was simply that I knew if I did what everyone else was doing, I would get what everyone else was getting," said Dave Sheehan, ladies designer shoe sales, Shirise, Chicago, IL. "If I did something different, I would stand out and get a better result.”

“No one was doing this in the shoe world that I knew of,” Mr. Sheehan said. “This was new, hot and fresh and it still is now.”

It reminds me of the early days of the internet, when innovative music artists like Charlie Chan would publish their music online and do live webcasts of their concerts. These individuals are at the lead of the technology curve, and in the world of shoe sales, Dave is similarly a leader. 

When you look at it from an industry point of view, when retail shoe salesman can run his own campaigns, you know that the medium is entering the mainstream. 

(See full article on MobileMarketer here). 

Steen