Finally, I am wholeheartedly behind you on the frustrations with cost and delays in getting set up. We at OTAir certainly thought long and hard about it and waited almost two years to launch (a good decision in retrospect). Though, once you’re on the other side of that effort, I must admit it serves as a nice barrier of entry for more competition. What OTAir and the other companies like us are able to do is to provide immediate mobile marketing solutions and divide the costs of providing such services among many, thereby overcoming those cost and time barriers for our clients. Also, there are plenty of marketing opportunities aside from premium, where yes the carriers unfortunately grab 50%. What really gets me is how it’s the same amount even for fundraising text campaigns for non-profits…that’s gotta change.

See the Mobile Marketing Association Member Profiles from the pull down menu.

http://mmaglobal.com/modules/content/index.php?id=198

And I know there are quite a few in the UK as well.

I do believe it will grow but it has taken longer than many expected…the goals have been the same as 2001 and we’re in 2006 and not too much change. Yes, cross carrier is there and PSMS is useful for voting campaigns. But the Carriers take 50% of PSMS revenue.

I see paypall mobile and opopay (?) being newer models for mobile transactions as well as Google coming into the fray.

Nuestar charges people a 1000 per month for a vanity shortcode yet it takes 2 months to provision the shortcode at your expense eating $2000 in cost. That is a problem.

Neustar and Carriers with PSMS and messaging costs and procedures are stifling their own industry while mobile IM and other methods will circumvent this.

Typical walled garden. I’d always go for a smaller slice of a big pie than a bigger slice of a small pie.

Though mobile marketing has been hyped for a long time, does not mean it will not happen. The internet was created 40 years before it started being utilized extensively and still took a while to really grab hold. Cell phones were around for almost 20 years before finally obtaining significant usage. It just takes time and it also requires that the infrastructure be available to support it, which did not happen until just four years ago with SMS interoperability among carriers.

There are not 100 vendors in the U.S. chasing the same market, though I’m sure there will be as with any “new” revenue opportunity. There are certainly more than scraps available to go around since the medium is a valid option for almost any entity and there are plenty of companies, organizations, governments, etc. not yet using the medium.

If there is one thing the history of technology certainly has taught mankind over the years…never say never.

The reality is that there are a 100 vendors chasing after the same market of brands, agencies, media and on-pack promotion. as such, many companies know this and the revenue of these campaigns is miniscule. sms volume is often very disappointing.

If you are sick and tired of the American Idol example, please raise your hands.

BTW, the carrier Cingular usually pay around $10 M to secure these rights. The rest of the companies fight for scraps on the floor while burning through investor money so fast it would make anyone’s head spin like Linda Blair.