Ez Texting SMS Marketing News

OnlineMediaDaily reports on an interesting prediction:

Mobile banking transactions worldwide will jump to 37 billion in 2011 from 2.7 billion in 2007, according to a new report by Juniper Research.

A growing variety of mobile financial services including funds transfers, bill payment and account management will help to drive the increase in transactions. Improved security safeguards will also be crucial to the rise of m-banking's expansion.

Read more @ OnlineMediaDaily.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports on an unconventional text messaging application (ie what your future is going to look like):

Japanese technology can link a kettle to a mobile phone, so every time an elderly person boils water for their morning cup of tea a message is sent to a family member letting them know their relative is up and well.

Say that again?

"So without any invasion at all of a person's space or dignity, you are able to know that that person is alive and having a cup of tea or whatever the case may be," Mr O'Neill told AAP.

Read more @ The Sydney Morning Herald.

First, let's dispense with the bad:

Most forms of mobile advertising are still annoying to a sufficient number of people to engender caution, according to a report by analyst group Forrester.

But there is a silver lining:

Anyway, Forrester claims that SMS is the most effective form of marketing because of the way people use their handsets, saying “text messaging is more likely to be successful than mechanisms involving mobile data, including couponing and [two-dimensional bar] codes”. The recommendation is to combine text messaging with out-of-home, or things like send-to-a-friend messages and referral incentives.

Read more at mocoNews.

Tom Limongello asks a very important question:

FOR YEARS, THE MOST POPULAR content viewed by mobile web browsers has been weather, news, and sports. But how is this changing and what is the next wave of mobile content?

And the answer is?

So where is mobile content going? The answer is deeper and richer. Where mobile content used to just be about the headlines, publishers are now providing a richer experience. Instead of just offering the latest headlines, news sites are providing video clips, image galleries, and deeper coverage of critical issues such as political primaries.

Let's take ESPN for example, sports fans can still get real-time scores and stats but now they also have one-touch access to other ESPN content like news, columnists, Gamecast, and videos as well as customizable information about your favorite teams, players, columnists and news topics.

Local content also becomes more relevant as mobile local search evolves and content is more accessible off-deck through sites like Google News. Now, mobile consumers can get not just national headlines, but find out what is happening in news and sports in their own home towns. Another great example of accessible mobile local search is New Jersey Transit which has a very user-friendly and lightweight mobile site that provides easy-to-use station and train schedule information for commuters on the go.

Read more at Online Media Daily.

Wondering if consumers are ready to listen your mobile marketing efforts? Wonder no more:

According to a new report from The Nielsen Company, twenty-three percent (58 million) of all U.S. mobile subscribers say they've been exposed to advertising on their phones in the past 30 days.  Half (51% or 28 million) of all data users who recall seeing mobile advertising in the previous 30 days say they responded to a mobile ad.

Much more over the Research Brief blog.