Dashboard update

The first thing you’ll notice when you log in to your Panacea account is an updated Dashboard view that gives you an overview of your recent activity. You’ll see a Quick Stats summary of messages sent for the day or week and their delivery rate, Recent Campaigns and a preview of the last messages received in your Inbox.

Substitution Fields

When creating Batch SMS Campaigns you can now insert custom data for each recipient into your messages using substitution fields. This allows you to send personalised messages to your recipients by using additional data in your batches. Below is a preview of how this can be done. You can also take a look at our step-by-step guide on how to use Substitution Fields.

Your Batch:

Result:

Premium Rate Reports

We’ve added a new report type called Premium Rates under the Reports section in your account. This allows you to see how many messages you’ve received and how much revenue you’ve earned from each network on each of the Premium Rate number in your account.

SMS Templates

Finally, we’ve added the ability for you to save and load SMS templates when composing an SMS. You’ll notice a link under the compose box that says More options clicking this will reveal options for you to save the text currently in the compose window as a template or load a pre-saved template into the compose window. For more info, have a look at our step-by-step guide on how to use SMS Templates.

We’re scheduled to release even more great new features soon, but for now let us know what you think of these in the comments section below.

The post New Features: Dashboard update, substitution fields, premium rate reports and SMS templates appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

Bulk SMS Pricing Comparison

We’ve monitored the pricing advertised on the websites of various Bulk SMS providers in South Africa. Below is a table of current pricing advertised on each company’s website. The price indicated is a per SMS cost for the volume tiers.

Unmatched Quality & Delivery

In addition to having the lowest SMS pricing in the market our online SMS portal and API were available for 99.98% of 2012. Our average delivery for 2012 was 90% with some accounts even reaching a delivery of as high as 99% when using our Number Validation service.

We’re incredibly proud of the Panacea team for providing a consistently high quality service at the lowest price and thankful to our customers who continue to trust us to deliver their messages.

_{Notes: (1) Prices we’re recorded on the date of publishing and are subject to change without notice. (2) Some Bulk SMS services have multiple price tiers within the above volume columns, in this case the lowest price was shown. (3) BulkSMS.com advertises prices inclusive of VAT, the prices in the table above have had VAT deducted to show a fair comparison.}

The post Lowest price Bulk SMS service in South Africa appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

If your customer mobile contact number database is more than 6 months old or your delivery rates are below 80%, this could be from mobile number churn among your customers.

Panacea Mobile provides a way to detect invalid numbers so that they can be removed from your database and you can save the cost of sending to numbers that are guaranteed to fail. In fact, some accounts that have made use of the Panacea Mobile number lookup service have achieved up to a 99% delivery rate. At only 9c per lookup, this can be significantly cheaper than the cost of sending an SMS to inactive numbers

For step by step instructions on how to do number validation click here.

The post Cut costs with Number Validation appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

Enterprise Mobile Messaging Solutions

We offer high volume (over 50 million per month) global SMS Software for financial institutions, Mobile Network Operators, SMS Aggregators and retailers. If you’re looking for solutions for capacity management, routing, security & auditing or billing then book a meeting time below to see how we can help you.

Connectivity Partnerships

Making new connections is always a good thing, we’re always on the lookout to discuss better connectivity with potential partners. If you’re a Carrier Relations Manger let’s discuss connectivity exchanges. Panacea Mobile offers direct and economy routes for African regions such as South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt and also Mexico or Brazil. Book a meeting time with us at MWC using the form below.

Book A Meeting

Bookings are closed.

The post Meet Us at Mobile World Congress 2013 appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

The Contestants

There were some great ideas pitched by the following finalists below:

Youth Village – An online portal focused on youth development content such as education, lifestyle and career guidance in South Africa. Youth Village generates revenue through advertising on its portal.

GreenPop – An organisation where you can sponsor a tree that is planted and displayed on the GreenPop online map. Their goal is to plant as many trees as possible to reduce the impact of global deforestation.

Future Power Solutions – These guys have developed a compact and affordable wind turbine that can be installed on any home. It harnesses wind energy to supplement your household’s monthly energy usage and shifts reliance on traditional forms of energy to renewable energy.

SpringAGE – SpringAGE provides idea generation services to corporate institutions by creating ‘thinking spaces’ for young South African’s to come up with solutions for corporate business problems.

Iono.fm – Is a mobile web-based educational audio and text book resource for students. Their mobile web platform provides educational audio and text content to students via a mobile web browser.

Trashback – A program that provides voucher payouts to citizens for collecting recyclable waste and depositing it at their drop off sites.

Mawu – A fashionable water pouch that discourages plastic waste caused by purchasing bottled water.

The Results

The pitch event was a massive success and it was a close battle for votes between GreenPop, Future Power Solutions and Iono.fm but in the end GreenPop came out tops with the audience and the judges. There were a total of 218 unique votes submitted, you can see the results below.

How we built the live SMS voting

Setting up the SMS voting was simple.

1. First we created a Panacea Mobile account for Enterprise Elevator.
2. Then we added a short code to that account so that it could receive messages.
3. We then setup seven contact lists in the account, one for each start-up.
4. An inbound trigger was then created for each start-up. Each Inbound Trigger had the following conditions and actions:
   1. Conditions: If a message contains a number (e.g. 1) and was sent to the short code 31860, then do the following actions,
   2. Actions: Subscribe the sender’s number to a list (e.g. Youth Village list) and then send a SMS back to the user thanking them for voting for Youth Village.
5. We then wrote a basic script that logs into the Enterprise Elevator account, counts the number of subscribers in each list and displays the results in a bar graph. This then refreshes every 5 seconds.

If those Inbound Triggers sounded a bit tricky, check out this screenshot of the trigger that we setup for Youth Village.

If you’re interested in setting up a live SMS voting screen for one of your events then get in touch with us and we’d be happy to help you with the setup. We’re also busy making a few changes to the graphing script so that we can release the source and let other interested people develop it further.

The post Using SMS to vote for ideas that have social impact appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

New Interface

The first thing you will notice about the latest version of the vSMSC is that it comes with a cleaner and more modern interface. The new interface is compatible with all modern web-browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Safari and from Internet Explorer 7 upwards.

Access Control Lists (ACL)

You can now create access permission profiles (known as System Roles) for vSMSC System Users. This allows you to restrict vSMSC system users from performing sensitive actions like routing changes, approving payments or adding credits for messaging users. You can also apply multiple System Roles to system users to give them a completely tailored set of actions for various different messaging user accounts.

User Guide: How to create a new System User

User Defaults Profiles

When you create a new messaging user, there are loads of options to customize the user’s account. To make the New User creation process more efficient, we’ve introduced User Default Profiles, which you can use to set default values for most of the user fields. This reduces the amount of necessary fields that need to be completed when creating a new user from 21 to 5.

User Guide: How to create a new user

User Guide: How to create a User Default Profile

New Report Builder Options: Users and HLR

The Report Builder now allows you to build reports that include messaging users accounts. This will give you great insight into the messaging activity and delivery performance of your users. HLR cost reporting is also available for customers who have the HLR Server installed.

Video Overview: Report Builder

Audit Logging

All  actions performed by System Users in the Admin Area of the vSMSC are now recorded and can be audited for accountability when required.

Various Performance Improvements

In addition to all the features above, we’ve made various other performance improvements to the vSMSC including DLR transparency, asynchronous flushing to disk and  various memory fixes and improvements.

Existing Panacea Mobile vSMSC customers can contact us to schedule their upgrade windows. Our new upgrade process doesn’t require a minute of downtime, although system performance will be degraded during the upgrade process.

The post New features available for vSMSC appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

Check out the new Panacea Accounts

If you’re interested in finding out more about what’s changed, then read on below.

We’ve made a ton of improvements to the interface by rewording most of the jargon into easily understandable language and developing a new simple layout that paves the way for a host of new features that we will be rolling out in the future. For now though, let’s take a walk through the new account design.

Campaigns

All Message and Batch campaigns are now located under the Campaigns section. We’ve added better filtering tools and bulk actions so that it’s easier to manage multiple campaigns. Right now you can send a Message Campaign (to contact lists) or a Batch Campaign (upload a file of numbers and messages to be sent). You can then watch your campaigns deliver in real-time, pause and resume sending, edit the batch settings or message text and download results from the campaign such as message results, failures or the original batch file. The Campaigns section will also house new campaign types that we’re launching in the future, including subscription, competitions and more.

Lists

All of your customer contact lists are housed under the Lists section. We’ve added better search and filtering as well as bulk actions to help you manage your customer contacts more easily. You can now also create custom fields to store non-standard types of data in your lists (like. Customer Type or City) which will come in handy for segmenting your campaigns down the line. It’s now also easier to export your contacts who have unsubscribed from your communications so that you can update your other databases.

Inbox

The Inbox section allows you to see all Inbound (MO) Messages received in your account by sender ID. When you send Message or Batch campaigns you can set your own sender ID and if your destination has two-way messaging available, replies will come back in from the sender’s number to the same Sender ID that you set. Inbound messages that are sent to short codes for your account will appear with the short code as a Sender ID. We have big plans for improving the functionality of the Inbox further, so watch this space.

Tools

This is a new section that we’ve added to stash all sorts of neat-o gadgets that you can use to level up your SMS activities. Right now you can create API Tokens for multiple apps to access a single account, push all Incoming Messages to a URL for your app to handle or remove mobile numbers that are longer active from your lists using Number Validation. We’re planning to add a lot more gadgets to this section to help you do even more awesome things with SMS.

Reports

We’ve simplified the reporting interface so that you can now get all of the same information in less reports. You can see how many many messages you’ve submitted on the current day or over the last 7 days. You can use the left hand navigation to look at different reports, such as the Message reports (a log of all messages sent), Batch reports (delivery rate of batch campaigns) or Blocked Numbers (people who’ve opted-out) and can export all of this data if you need to.

Sub-users

You can also create and manage sub-users of your account. Transfer your account funds to their account or let them use your account funds. This is great for managing different departments in a company or recruiting your own customers.

New APIs

Probably the best new change about the redesigned accounts are that they are built completely on top of a whole stack of new APIs. So anything you see in the new accounts can now be accessed via an API. We’re just putting on the finishing touches before we release them publicly to our developer customers. This API architecture is going to be our approach to any new features that are launched for Panacea Accounts so that they are immediately available to developers who want to integrate their apps with them.

So what are you waiting for?! Login and check out your new Panacea Account right now!

Check out the new Panacea Accounts

The post New Panacea Accounts now available in beta appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

Any direct marketing message is considered unsolicited (and hence spam) unless:

1. the recipient has requested the message;
2. the message recipient has a prior commercial relationship with the message originator and has been given a reasonable opportunity to object to direct marketing communications;
   1. at the time when the information was collected; and
   2. on the occasion of each communication with the recipient; or
3. the organisation supplying the originator with the recipient’s contact information has the recipient’s explicit consent to do so.

The full WASPA Code of Conduct can be accessed on the WASPA website here. If you have any doubt as to the interpretation of this, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us and we’ll happily clarify. Any contravention of these terms may result in a WASPA complaint being laid against you which could result in a financial penalty, so be careful! These rules apply only when sending SMSs in South Africa.

The post WASPA Code of Conduct updated appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

Welcome to Kevin Blount, who joins us as a Support Engineer. He will be helping all of our online customers with any of their account queries.

His previous experience includes building up a 24 hour customer support department, that managed over 8,000 in-store networked displays around South Africa! So he’s going to be making sure that our customers get faster help from us when they need it. He’ll also be laying down more of our knowledge resources and documentation for our software products, so that there is more self-help available for our customers to access.

In his spare time he DJ’s under the alias of “Up-Psy-Down” at many of the Cape Town outdoor festivals and has recently been booked for the upcoming Sprung festival.

If you need to get in touch with him for any help with your account you can simply send a mail to support@panaceamobile.com.

See Kevin’s personality test below, which scored a solid 145 Beats Per Minute.

What movie could you watch 10 times in a row?

Snatch.

What was your longest commute ever?

Flying to the UK, then trying to figure out the damn tubes to get to The Isle of Dogs.

What five things are always in your fridge?

Milk, Eggs, Cheese, Butter and from time to time some beer.

Your favourite mobile phone?

Any of the Galaxy S Series have been great for their time.

Your favourite mobile app?

Sky Map

What’s the one gadget you can’t live without?

It’s a tie between my Galaxy S2 and my Galaxy TAB.

Favourite meal in Cape Town?

Nothing beats Mom’s home cooking when I have the chance to visit home

If you could give the world one piece of advice, what would it be?

If  you can’t be good, then at least be good at it.

Whats topping your bucket list?

To tour Thailand would be epic.

Worst nickname you’ve ever been called?

Hmm, never had a problem with bad nicknames…I was called Bionut in high school; amongst my LAN buddies, but that just became my alias in the end.

What is your biggest vice?

My music. I can’t go more than a week without mixing some beats on my CD-Js.

Best book you’ve ever read?

The most engrossing at the time I read it has to be The Hobbit when I was younger.

What do you like to do outside of work?

Hahaha…loaded question. I suppose I enjoy being outdoors as much as possible. Camping, going to the beach, anything in the sun-I hate winters!

Your most impressive party trick?

I don’t have one. I suppose I need to up my game in this regard.

Favourite Panacea moment so far?

Finding out that if you eat a Prego-roll from Dias Tavern you will probably fart pure garlic.

The post Upping the tempo of customer support appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

The Business

To start off, our vision is to become a world-wide Mobile Technology company that helps everyone, from the largest telecoms and service companies to small businesses around the world, to deliver better and smarter mobile communications to their customers. So far, in the two years and eight months that we’ve been around, we’ve done a pretty good job with the business growing approximately 500% in our most recent financial year. We compete with South Africa’s most established WASPS with a staff count of only 7 people and we believe that’s possible because we invest in smart people to help us work even smarter.

When it comes to tech, our vSMSC software has proven it’s flexibility, scalability and robustness over and over, slaying many a flakey SMSC in it’s path and enabling retailers, e-commerce sites, financial institutions, web/mobile apps and other small business all around the world to deliver SMSs to millions of mobile phones every month. And now we’re preparing for the next transition in the mobile communications market, which you can read more about further down under The Work.

But for now, how about a quick tour of the office?

The Office

Don’t you find that the coolest offices always look so awesome because no one is ever working in them? We’ll we tried to pry Mark from his seat but it just wasn’t happening that day. Our office is on the third floor of the Wolroy House building on Buitenkant Street. It’s an industrial style double apartment that we share with the guys from Obox and OnNet. The Field Office is around the corner, where we pick up our daily grind and snacks and there’s also the new Truth coffee headquarters opening up opposite our building that’s started selling coffee too.

The Work

Right, so after we’ve had our first coffee of the day we actually build some pretty innovative (and always scalable) tech for mobile messaging. Some of the cool things we’ve developed this year are the Report Builder, HLRBox and ProxyBox.

Our development Roadmap for 2012 is looking a bit like this:

• Web Console v3 – New interface, new features, completely API driven and open source (Mark’s post coming soon)
• Push Notifications, Mxit and possibly many more integrations thanks to ProxyBox
• Developer Marketplace
• Improved SMS permission layer
• Location based services

We use open source project management software called redmine to manage all of the tasks for the projects above. Some of the many great features of redmine are it’s ability to package tasks into release versions, integrate with SVN, share projects publicly and customise workflows. It’s also installed locally so it’s lightning fast, none of that Basecamp click and wait n00b-ness. We also believe that if you ever need to do something more than three times, it should be automated.

Other cool stuff

Look, we don’t have any on-site pet psychiatrists or start-up cruisers like they do in Silicon Valley, but we do have a few things that we think are cool. About once a month we usually arrange a group order from Amazon to get discounts on electronics and other gear. We go out for lunch on Birthdays. We have a coffee tab at Field Office and a nice kitchen area. There’s an HDTV to watch sport when a game is on (note Donald‘s 4th screen in the first office pic) and we’ve rigged up our Wii console for the occasional tennis match. Then there’s Friday drinks, the occasional Quake deathmatch and you’re guaranteed to catch a few good links on IM.

So that’s us! If you like the sound of any of that above and you’re a talented and ambitious individual, then why not check out our careers page to see if there may be a seat for you on this rocket!

The post What is it like working at Panacea Mobile? appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

So let’s say, for example that you want to identify underperforming SMSCs in the last seven days or view top destinations that your customers have sent to over the last month? The Report Builder allows you to create reports like these from the data in your system, you can also name and save them for frequent use. You can and even save graphs to your report dashboard, giving you a customised reporting overview of the vSMSC platform.

Take a look at the video below for a demo of how the Report Builder works:

We’re also seasoned when it comes to working with big data, so we knew that these reports couldn’t affect performance of the vSMSC. The Report Builder avoids any performance impacts by using data that is summarised every evening during the low activity period instead of doing live database queries. So you can build and view reports whenever you like without degrading any system performance.

If you’re an existing vSMSC customer then please contact us to arrange your free upgrade to start seeing your SMS operations from a variety of new perspectives.

Let us know in the comments section what kind of reports you think would be useful to create with the Report Builder?

The post Introducing: Report Builder appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

We’re really excited to announce the release of our new Number Validation feature to help improve your delivery rates and filter out inactive numbers from your lists. It’s available in all accounts from today and you can find it by clicking on the Number Validation menu item in the top navigation of your account. This new tool allows you to upload a list of numbers that get checked by the mobile networks using HLR Lookup. The results then return a whole bunch of information for each number in the list. Most notably the results show whether the number is valid or not, this is handy because you can then eliminate all inactive numbers from your lists and save on future SMS costs.

It costs less than an SMS to validate a number, check out the pricing in the table below.

For step by step instructions on how to use the Number Validation in your account, you can refer to the cleaning your data user guide.

We’ll be releasing API documentation soon and are particularly excited to see what developers can cook up when using real-time number validation in their applications.

Neat!

The post Clean your mobile number database with our new Number Validation tool appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

A big welcome to Mark Menzies who has just joined the Panacea Mobile development team. Mark has come on board to work on a load of new innovations that we have planned for 2012 and has wasted no time in getting started. Before joining us he was involved with developing and maintaing the Computicket service, and so his experience with high performance systems and big data fits perfectly with what we do here at Panacea Mobile.

We always believe that if you want great ideas, you need great people, and check out his pic! He’s probably dreaming up a game changer right there in the middle of the club, and looking good while doing it.

Mark, we look forward to sharing many ideas, links, jokes and coffees with you, guy.

–

Mark took the Panacea Mobile Personality Test below and pretty much nailed every question.

New York.

What do you do when you’re outside?

Walk to my car or do something revolving around sport.

What’s the most impressive thing you can cook?

Burger patties (which are pretty much the only thing I can cook).

Is there any idea or invention you wish you would have come up with?

Groupon or pretty much any other billion-dollar idea.

Your favourite mobile app?

Ster Kinekor Nokia App – Because I helped build it

Windows, MacOSX or Ubuntu?

I use them all daily, but am currently using a Mac at work.

Most visited website?

For work stackoverflow.com probably, for fun probably techcrunch.com and lifehacker.com.

What’s topping your bucket list?

A year of road-tripping in the States!

The post Welcome Mark Menzies appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

More than 60 000 people from over 200 countries attended last year’s Mobile World Congress. This year, the organisers are hoping to see a specific increase in the number of CEOs and senior level delegates.

The 2012 MWC takes place at the Fira Montjuïc in Barcelona, Spain from Monday, 27 February through Thursday, 1 March 2012. The theme for this year’s congress is ‘Redefining Mobile’ and was chosen to underscore the multiple roles played by mobile in our lives today: Mobile technology is embedded in our homes, workplaces, cars and even our governments. It deserves, as such, a redefinition, and a reassessment of its potential couldn’t have come at a more exciting time.

The congress is divided into various components. The pass that you have will determine which you will have access to.

The thought-leadership conference is the central component of the congress, and will feature keynotes and panel discussions by renowned speakers, including Li Yue (President, China Mobile), Bret Taylor (CTO, Facebook), John Donahoe (CEO, eBay) and Rene Obermann, the Chairman and CEO of Deutsche Telekom. More than 30 focused conference sessions will cover the latest technological trends and growth strategies for the global mobile industry. This is not to be missed!

In addition, the congress will host an exhibition, boasting over 1 400 stands. On display will be everything from hardware and device manufacturers to service providers, software developers and application innovations. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a broader range of mobile-related products and services under one roof.

An important goal of the congress is to unite the world’s key app players. App Planet provides an opportunity for app developers and mobile professionals to unite, brainstorm and bring to life their potential. This component of the MWC is open to all pass-holders and includes an app-specific exhibition, an App Lounge (for networking) and, by invitation, App Developer Conferences.

A new feature at this year’s event is mPowered Brands. Much like App Planet was created to bring together the app developer community, mPowered Brands will assemble global marketers to educate and foster mobile’s potential in engaging consumers.

Donald Jackson, Panacea Mobile’s CTO at the Mobile World Congress last year

As an international showcase of excellence in the mobile industry, the 17^th Annual Global Mobile Awards will also take place during the congress. A shortlist of 158 organisations has been announced for this prestigious award.

Plentiful networking can be done before, during and after the event – a golden opportunity that Panacea Mobile (represented by its two founders, Donald Jackson and Stefano Sessa) will be sure not to miss. Follow Donald and Stefano on Twitter and stay up-to-date on their impressions of the MWC 2012.

Detailed information on the event location, dates and times can be viewed here.

The post Mobile World Congress 2012 appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

1. Use opt-in marketing.

Make sure that customers are expecting your communication. If they haven’t chosen to hear from from you, they’re likely to feel that their privacy has been invaded. Wondering where you sourced their details from, they will ultimately end up mistrusting you and your message (which, in fact, is tantamount to spam if you haven’t received the user’s permission).

One exception to this rule can be observed: It is widely regarded as acceptable to send mobile marketing to an individual whose number you have obtained through a sale or the negotiation of a sale (that may or may not have gone through). However, you should only market to them products or services that are similar to the original product or service. This is called the ‘soft opt-in’ method, and should not be relied on as a long-term strategy.

2. Always make sure that users can opt-out.

This is the second principle of permission-based marketing: Users need to be able to opt-out of receiving messages from you, and they need to be able to do so easily. There are few things more frustrating than hearing from a business that is no longer relevant to you (or worse, never was).

Remember to regularly remind users that they can opt out, and clearly explain how to do so. It should be free of charge, except for the cost of the transmission of the opt-out.

As a rule of thumb, you should automatically opt-out customers on your database with whom you have not had any contact for over one year. You can no longer guarantee that their details are correct; nor can you know whether or not they still want to hear from you.

3. Segment as accurately as possible.

The beauty of mobile marketing lies in the power to target your audiences as accurately as possible. Market segmentation is the process of dividing up your target market into groups with similar social and economic backgrounds, and similar propensities to buy your product.

During the planning phases of your marketing campaign, decide what segment of your market the campaign is aimed at, and ensure that the proposed content thereof is appropriate for that group.

Bear in mind that what is perceived as offensive or inappropriate will largely depend on your target market. Campaigns containing references to religious or political beliefs, race, gender, alcohol, gambling or competitions should be doubly checked for inappropriate content or undertones.

4. Make sure that your message has value.

Remember that you are still talking to real people with limited attention spans and thousands of messages vying for their attention every day. Differentiate yourself by clearly identifying your promotional offer and its value to the customer. Don’t only concentrate on the sale you might make, and never forget to include a call to action.

5. Time your message well.

Pay attention to when and how often you are sending messages. It is best practice not to send mobile marketing communication between 10pm and 7am on weekdays, and between 10pm and 9am on weekends and holidays (unless there is a specific reason to be doing so). You’ll also want to wait 2-3 weeks before sending your next message.

Need more info? We’d be happy to help. Click here to chat with us about how you can turn your mobile marketing campaign into a responsible one.

Hannah Moore is a freelance journalist and copywriter based in Cape Town, South Africa.

Image credit: Mobilemarketingwatch.com, Jensgulich.wordpress.com

The post 5 Principles of Responsible Mobile Marketing appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

It’s 1995. Larry Page, 22, a Michigan graduate, is considering a move to Stanford University. When he arrives on campus, he meets Sergey Brin, an existing Stanford student who is assigned to give Larry a tour of the grounds. They disagree about almost everything they discuss during their first meeting. Despite this, they become two of the most influential co-entrepreneurs of our time.

In 1996, Larry and Sergey create BackRub, the first search engine to determine the importance of links, rather than just their numbering. Soon after, they establish Google, and although it is at first just another search engine, the company grows exponentially because of its well-targeted search results and peripheral products.

By the mid 1990s, the World Wide Web is all the rage and search engines have become the preferred way of trawling through the oceans of digital content that can be found online.

Today, Google is the most powerful search engine, able to provide the most relevant and the quickest results to its users. It has been estimated that this super-search-engine processes over one billion search requests and approximately 24 petabytes of user-generated data daily!

The Google conglomerate now not only owns YouTube, but is also responsible for the creation of Android, the cell phone and tablet operating system that is set to take the mobile world by storm. And, with the company’s recent acquisition of Motorolla’s mobile business, Google stands at the threshold of mobile mastery.

So, how and why did Google become so powerful?

Amongst its two biggest rivals (Yahoo! and Microsoft’s Bing), Google seems to be far ahead of the game. Why is that?

Firstly, Google is made stronger by its highly effective software services, such as mapping (Google Earth), Gmail and online office software.

Secondly, Google can sell ads to nearly everyone with a pulse. Through that, the company has become a tidy little earner! For the quarter ended September 2011, it accumulated net profits of US$2.7 billion (a 26% increase from the same quarter in 2010), and that was mainly through its AdSense operation.

Thirdly, and most importantly for our purposes, Google (in collaboration with other big mobile players such as Nokia, Samsung, Ericsson) provided financial support in the launch of the .mobi domain. This domain was created specifically for the purposes of the mobile internet, and vastly improved the user experience thereof. As such, Google has been at the forefront of innovation in the online mobile arena. Since mobile is one of the fastest-growing communication media, this has increased both the company’s current and its future profit margins.

Search Tip: Google might be taking the world by storm, but don’t dismiss its competitors, Bing and Yahoo!. Google doesn’t search the entire web; it searches its own index of the web using clever software called spiders or web crawlers. When you need to do in-depth research on a topic, use all three to make sure your results are as inclusive as possible.

Hannah Moore is a freelance copy and travel writer based in Cape Town, South Africa.

Image Credit: Android-invasion.net, Blogoscoped.com, Imageshack.us

The post The Google Era appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

The world as viewed by youth is a continuum of entertainment, information and communication.”

No doubt, compared to adult marketing, youth marketing is far more complex and needs to cater to ever-diminishing attention spans.

There has been a recent hype around the potential power of mobile marketing to target youth audiences. Importantly, however, applying just any mobile marketing method (web-based, audio or video enabled, etc.) isn’t a fix-all solution. The problem lies herein:

A large percentage of the youth market, especially in Africa, is hindered by obstacles such as the high cost of data or handsets that aren’t equipped to handle the mobile content that many advertisers are pushing. This is especially the case in emerging market economies, where most youth have pre-paid contracts, which renders data-heavy ads cost-ineffective. So, if you are trying to hit the widest margin, higher-end content is unlikely to get you there.

What then, is the best way to reach the youth market via mobile?

As an alternative to high-end, more costly mobile marketing methods, SMS remains one of the most effective ways to target a young demographic. There are a number of reasons for this:

• Youth, especially teens, are the biggest users of SMS around the globe. In the United Kingdom for example, SMS has eclipsed voice calls as the most common use of mobile phones.
• Since SMS is so easily adapted for different purposes, it can be harnessed by non-commercial players as well. This includes educational institutes. A successful case study occurred in the United Arab Emirates:

In the UAE, mobile operator Etisalat along with The Ministry of Education and Youth launched an SMS service for examination results, so that students and their families would not have to wait long for their results. Scores are delivered via SMS literally minutes after the Ministry of Education officially announces them!” (Madanmohan Rao for TechSparks.com)

• Youth value connectivity with their peers highly. Some studies show that as much as 89% of text messages sent by youth are to their friends. SMS is therefore a medium that is personal enough, without being invasive.

Tip: Always remember not to overwhelm your youth audience. They are a fickle target market, with countless brands and adverts vying for their attention. Keep it punchy and to-the-point and make sure that your advertisement is not costing them. Finally, don’t expect all youth to adopt new products and break them into the mainstream market on your behalf. This remains a highly complex and dynamic target audience; one that needs to be studied continuously.

Kim Walker, Executive Director of Aegis Media Asia Pacific sums it up nicely:

Successful marketing to youth should entertain and empower, be responsive to their queries and needs, give them free reign in designing Web content, and engage them in quick-win SMS-based competitions. Marketing campaigns should have functional, educational and emotional components built in to successfully target youth.”

It’s a tall order, indeed, but one that can be successfully carried out if you have the right advice. Click here to contact one of our consultants or here to sign up with Panacea Mobile for free.

Hannah Moore is a freelance journalist based in Cape Town, South Africa.

Generation Mobile Infographic:

Image Credit: Hitechreview.com, Youthministrymedia.ca

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Myth 1: The worldwide toll free emergency number from any mobile phone (or land line) is 112. If you happen to be outside of your network coverage area, your mobile phone will search for an alternative network and will then successfully make the call, connecting you to an operator. This number can even be dialed when your keypad is locked. Try it!

True or false?

Partly true. The 112 emergency number is not valid worldwide. It was first established for countries within the European Union only, but it’s application has now been expanded to include other parts of the world. Examples include South Africa, Zimbabwe, Russia and the UK, to name a few. For an exhaustive list of countries, click here. PS – Within the U.S., dialing 911 remains the most direct and reliable way of contacting emergency services regardless of whether that’s from a land line or mobile phone.

Myth 2: You can use your mobile phone to unlock your car door. Next time you lock your keys in the car and your spare keys are at home, don’t panic! Simply call someone at home, from your mobile to their mobile. Hold your cell phone about a foot from the car door and have the other person press ‘unlock’ on your car’s immobiliser. Your car will unlock itself. Distance is no object.

True or false?

Sounds revolutionary, but no, sorry, this is ludicrously un-true. Cell phones and car immobilisers work on entirely different radio frequencies. This myth was so widely circulated that even Mythbusters tested its theory.

Myth 3: If you use a cell phone while flying, the signal can interfere with the plane’s compass and navigation systems, possibly leading to a crash.

True or false?

It’s debatable. According to a pilot who was interviewed by ABC News, the reason for having to turn off your mobile phone and other electronic devices before liftoff is so that you pay attention to safety instructions, not because it interferes with the plane’s navigation systems. Recent studies by NASA have also shown no instances in which a plane was crashed due to the use of a cell phone. However, some pilots claim otherwise and, as such, the approach is still currently ‘rather safe than sorry’ of nature.

Myth 4: Cell phones cause cancer.

True or false?

This is still being debated. Unfortunately, despite the many studies that have been conducted on this issue, no clarity has been reached. For now, this remains a personal choice. It must be stated that no direct link between cancer and cell phone usage has yet been found. The need for longer-term studies remains.

Myth 5: To activate the reserve battery when your handset is running low, punch *3370# into your keypad. Your mobile phone will restart itself, showing a 50% increase in battery life. This reserve will automatically top up again when you charge your handset the next time.

True or false?

False. Some Nokia models allow users to punch in specific codes to toggle between different speech codec modes: They can either enhance voice transmission quality at the cost of depleting their battery life more quickly, or they can do the opposite. This statement is actually doubly erroneous because the *3370# code is used to increase voice quality and thereby decreases batter life!

Hannah Moore is a freelance writer based in Cape Town, South Africa.

Image credit: Switched.com, Cellphones.org/blog

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According to a recent article by industry analysts at Vomo [see original article here], a few of the 2011 trend highlights included:

1. Feature phones over smartphones

Due to the nature of the South African mobile landscape, the feature phone remains a preferred alternative to the smartphone. According to Google’s Our Mobile Planet stats, 85% of South Africans use a feature phone. That doesn’t seem so illogical when we look at the benefits: The feature phone has longer battery life, it costs less and, despite what many might think, some people just want to use their phones to text and call (shock, horror!), which the feature phone does perfectly fine.

2. What iPhone?

The iPhone, and this may come as a surprise to many, is no holy grail. Far too many companies made the mistake of thinking that it was when, actually, the iPhone accounts for a mere 4% of the smartphone market in South Africa. Bearing in mind that the smartphone market consists of only 15% of the total mobile market, that’s a market share hardly worth mentioning. Let’s move on then, shall we?

3. Social Impact

The mobile phone has changed how we, as South Africans, communicate and connect with each other. This was notably visible in 2011 in Africa as a whole, with the rise of mobile counseling and social media revolutions that affected everything from politics to natural disasters. Here’s to the power of mobile in connecting people and making a real difference in their lives.

Industry leaders are positive about what 2011 did for mobile marketing, and even more importantly, about what 2012 holds.

Mike Stopforth, CEO of strategic digital communications agency Cerebra, says:

The sale of MXit to World of Avatar [September, 2011] promises the continued growth and development of the mammoth instant messaging platform, while other home-grown applications like Motribe.com continue to achieve maturity and attract key clients and brands.”

Google’s head of mobile for SA, Brett St Clair has high hopes for the smartphone in 2012, despite recent stats suggesting future trends to the contrary:

2012 will definitely be the year of the smartphone in South Africa. This will allow marketers to engage with audiences using rich media, contextually relevant targeting features and complete end-to-end tracking on phones.”

A few predictions:

• In 2010, spending on mobile marketing in South Africa totaled around R500-million. In 2012, it is expected to be double that, said mobile giants Vodacom, Mxit and Google in a joint statement.
• The country’s low internet connectivity penetration (10%) and high broadband costs will further drive consumers to mobile.
• Permission-based mobile marketing will continue to lead the way in strengthening consumer engagement, especially when coupled with time, location and demographic-sensitive messaging. (Read more on the importance of consumer engagement here.)

On a global level, super mobile devices, tablets and smartphones outsold PCs, laptops and net-books, combined, in 2011 alone. We think it’s rather difficult not be excited about the future of mobile in 2012. Don’t you?

Join the mobile revolution or click here to find out more about Panacea Mobile.

Hannah Moore is a freelance copy and travel writer based in Cape Town, South Africa.

Image credit: Istrategylabs.com

The post Mobile Marketing in SA: Year in Review appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

In the past 7 or 8 years traditional methods of marketing have shown declining effectiveness.   At first the decline was slow overall, although more accelerated in some categories than others. The drop in effectiveness was most visible in categories such as services, hospitality, beverages and entertainment – at first.  Now it is quickly spreading to all categories.” – Randall Ringer, Co-Founder and CEO of Verse Group Brand Consulting

Indeed, globalisation and the rise of technology have changed the way that we, as consumers, interact with the brands that we buy. Inevitably, advertisers have had to adapt their methods, and the helmsmen of the world’s most successful brands have done just that.

What’s changed? Well, the communication gateway between the brand and its consumer is no longer one-way. Now more than ever, individuals are empowered to take part in a dialogue – to give their feedback and their commentary and to make known their disgruntlements. All of a suddent, consumers have evolved into ‘prosumers’.

Perhaps even more important is that this communication gateway, this two-way story-telling creates a sense of intrigue, ultimately drawing in the increasingly savvy consumer on a much deeper level than before. That, in essence, is what Narrative Branding is about and, when used correctly, it can be very powerful.

So, what does the new branding phenomenon have to do with mobile? The narrative of a brand can be conveyed through a myriad of channels. Print, TV, in-store advertising, billboards, social media, online and other methods have all been used in the execution of successful Narrative Branding campaigns.

The question, however, remains: Which medium best allows the consumer to carry the narrative with them, irrespective of time or space?

Thomas Guignard of FashionsCollective.com, an online marketing resource for luxury fashion brands, makes the following point in this regard:

Aware of location, sensitive to time, and ever connected, the mobile medium delivers contextual relevance to brand communications and allows marketers to truly engage consumers in the moment. […] By effectively leveraging digital engagement triggers such as QR codes, image recognition, SMS, or with the advent of NFC, marketers can breathe digital life into traditional (unidirectional) communications via smartphone devices. ”

Need an example? The Amble with Louis Vuitton iPhone app is a good illustration of a successful Narrative Branding campaign using mobile as the primary channel of communication.

Want to know more about how you can launch your own Narrative Branding campaign? You can sign up with Panacea Mobile for free by clicking here, or contact us if you’d prefer to chat to one of our consultants – we’d be happy to help.

Hannah Moore is a freelance copy and travel writer based in Cape Town, South Africa.

Image Credit: Xplorestudio.co.za, Selectism.com

The post Mobile Marketing and the Power of Narrative Branding appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

Top Tips:

Gone are the days when we used to leave our mobile phones at home during a holiday, to better escape from the demands of daily life back home. Now, taking your cell phone along with you can actually save you time and money, and make for a more stress-free holiday. These are our top tips to bear in mind when using your mobile during your travels this holiday season:

Visit the TripAdvisor mobi site (simply go to www.tripadvisor.com on your handset) or download the TripAdvisor app to peruse restaurants and destinations in advance. Fellow users post reviews which are really helpful.

Google Map an area you’re not sure you should visit, and find out whether it’s worth your while.

Let friends and family know you’ve arrived safely at your off-the-beaten-track destination by using BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), SMS, WhatsApp or Skype, all of which are cheaper options than calling.

Make loved ones jealous by posting photos on Facebook and Twitter of you sipping cocktails on a deserted island beach.

Load some sweet beats onto your smartphone and plug in some earphones!

Know when to turn off your phone.

Top Apps:

BlackBerry Travel is great for checking flight schedules, accommodation and the weather. If your flight is delayed, BlackBerry will automatically send you a notification. It’s also a useful tool for converting currency and sharing your travel itinerary with friends via LinkedIn or e-mail.

Triposo builds free, interactive travel guides for mobile devices. 50 different guides are available for Android, and 30 city guides have been optimised for iPhone.

The popular pocket-sized Wallpaper City Guides (Phaidon Publishers) are now available as an iPhone app. Ten of the best-selling city guides, including New York, Berlin and Paris, have been converted to applications. They have been compiled by both in-house editors and local correspondants, making for quality content. The app does not feature augmented reality functionality, but what it lacks in tech, it makes up for in chic.

DriveSafe.ly – This awesome app for BlackBerry, iPhone and Android puts an end to texting while driving by reading your SMS’ and e-mails out loud while you drive. Do watch out though; this baby is data-hungry, so it’s best to use on a data and/or SMS bundle.

Top Warnings:

Most of us have learned the hard way that data costs are much higher when roaming. Bear these tips in mind to avoid joy-sapping bills when you return from your international travels.

If using a smartphone, ensure that all data-related activities on your device are disabled. Receiving e-mail, surfing the net and using instant messaging should only be activated when absolutely necessary. BlackBerry users, this applies to you, too! Using BBM while overseas is not free, as it is back home. You will be billed the applicable Zone World rate. Contact your service provider for exact costs.

Configure your e-mail settings to download the headers of only new e-mails to prevent large downloads.

As a rule of thumb, only use data roaming when you really have to. Streaming video (YouTube), peer-to-peer file sharing and other downloads are extremely expensive when roaming.

Disable automatic app refreshes and software updates when abroad.

Happy travels and see you in 2012,

The Panacea Mobile Team

Hannah Moore is a freelance travel and copy writer based in Cape Town, South Africa.

Image credit: Europetravel.net,

The post On the move with your mobile? appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

We, at Panacea Mobile realise that cellphone bills can add substantially to the headache. So, we’ve suggested a few practical tips on how to keep your cellphone costs from soaring out of control. There’s no better time of the year to check your account for hidden costs and potential savings, so grab your latest invoice and a calculator and read on for more.

1. Pay attention to where and when you use your cellphone

Most of us are aware that different subscriber packages offer different savings options, depending on what time of the day and what days of the week you use your phone most frequently. If you don’t have an international plan, for example, making (or taking) calls and roaming the net while overseas can cost a fortune.

Make sure that you are well-informed about the options available to you, and re-assess your subsequent usage patterns at least once a year – that is your responsibility. You can be sure of one thing, however: Your service provider doesn’t want to lose you as a customer and will be happy to assist you in finding a package that’s more suited to you.

2. Eliminate unnecessary frills

You might text and use the internet frequently on your mobile (these are services for which you pay extra, by the way), but other, less-obvious costs are often unnecessary and can quickly add up.

Itemised billing with Vodacom, for example, will cost you R17.10 per month; while the Voicemail to SMS service (which converts your voicemail messages to SMS’) will cost you roughly R49.00 per month. You even pay for the option of caller-line identity, which allows you to see who is calling you (R9.50 monthly). Insurance with your cellphone service provider is unnecessary if you are insured elsewhere.

On the other hand, asking your service provider to send you notifications when you are halfway through your data or SMS bundle, for instance, might save you in the long run. So, work out which additional costs you really need, and eliminate those you don’t.

3. Use Bulk SMS

If you’re a business-owner or an individual who sends frequent text messages to clients, colleagues or staff members, consider making use of Panacea’s Bulk SMS Gateway. The alternative technology of Panacea’s Bulk SMS Gateway gives you the ability to SMS-enable any of your products or applications. We also offer an advanced hosted messaging solution to make sending text messages as easy as possible. The money-saving part? You get to send SMS’ from as little as R0.2 per message. (You’re welcome.) Find out more here.

*

To all our new and existing loyal customers, we wish a restorative and peaceful festive season and a 2012 filled with exciting new beginnings.

By the way, we’ve moved offices. You can now find us in the upbeat suburb of Gardens, Cape Town. 

Hannah Moore is a freelance journalist and copywriter based in Cape Town, South Africa.

Image Credit: Pocketnow.com, Qrcodepress.com

The post Simple Ways to Cut your Cellphone Costs appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

We’ve all had to scramble for a ringing phone at the movies, and we’ve all sent an SMS during a face-to-face conversation. But when does your love for this little device start affecting your friendships, your job and your health? Here’s what you need to know.

At Work

We spoke to Ashleigh van Wyk, a Cape Town based employment recruiter to get the low-down on personal calls in a professional environment. “Spending any part of your working day (excluding your lunch break) taking personal calls is unacceptable,” she says. “You are showing that you’re not focused on your job and you’re giving an unfavourable impression of your business to outsiders.” Some calls can’t be avoided, but when you do take them, maintain a buffer zone of ten metres. That way, you won’t over-share or break the concentration of those around you.

“My co-worker would sit at her desk recounting every detail of her life, from how many shots she had had the night before to which guy she liked,” says Nancy, 22. “Although she was good at her job, she was passed over for promotion quite a few times and I’m sure that that played a role.”

Remember: your ringtone speaks volumes about your professional image. We all love LMFAO’s ‘Party Rock’ at 2am on a Saturday, but does the polyphonic version really hold the same appeal on a Wednesday morning at 10:00? Be sure to think twice about inappropriate Facebook profile pictures, too. Many people synchronise their Facebook contacts with their cellphone address book, so make sure that you’re OK with sharing that pic of you doing body-shots in Barcelona with colleagues and clients.

Multitask Madness

Using your phone to multitask at work isn’t just rude, it’s unhealthy: Doing so can also knock a whole ten points off your IQ and cause the release of stress the hormones, cortisol and adrenaline. Glenn Wilson, a psychiatrist from the University of London even likens this head-fog to losing a night’s sleep.

“At work, I would often talk to friends on my cell while writing important work emails,” says Thembi, 25. “It all stopped when I sent a confidential email to the wrong client and was severely reprimanded. Now I give every task my full attention.”

On a Date

Nobody likes to feel less worthy of your attention than a cellphone, especially if they’re on a date with you. “Cellphone etiquette on romantic occasions is basic manners,” says Shelley Lewin, a relationship coach. “Just because someone else wants to speak to you, doesn’t mean you need to be available for them immediately. That’s what voice mail is for. If you’re on a date and you’re expecting an important call, warn the person beforehand. Otherwise, put it on silent and pack it away.”

Shelley explains that this is a common problem, “A fundamental need of all human beings is to be seen and heard. If we are preoccupied with something else, the message we send to our partners is that they are not important. We become complacent and take each other for granted, forgetting to do the simple things for each other that say ‘You are special to me’.”

Social Get-togethers

“It’s an irony that in our increasingly interconnected world, we’re running the risk of substituting electronic relationships for real ones, pushing us further apart from each other rather than bringing us closer,” says Shelley. “Non-verbal communication accounts for 93% of the message delivered in social interaction. So, the less face-to-face time we spend with each other, the more unskilled we become in social situations and the more isolated we become from each other.”

“I went out to lunch with three girlfriends last week,” says Scarlett, 27. “We don’t see each other often, but an hour into our lunch date all three of them were on their phones. I felt I had to take mine out just so I had something to do!”

The bottom-line: Follow the ‘crossword rule’. If you think that it would be OK to pull out a crossword puzzle and begin working on it at that moment, then it’s probably OK to send an SMS.

Hannah Moore is a freelance journalist based in Cape Town, South Africa.

The post How's your cellphone etiquette? appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

Before you begin sending SMS’, however, you’ll need to choose the API that’s right for you. An API (Application Programming Interface) might sound like a complicated term to some of us, but really, it’s just a set of rules that governs the interaction between software programs. In fact, an API is not unsimilar to the user interface between you and your computer.

At Panacea Mobile, we offer a range of easy-to-use APIs which directly integrate text messaging with your applications, websites, software and back-office custom apps, using one single command. You can use bulk SMS for promotions, ‘text and win’ competitions, orders, notifications, quotations, virtual vouchers, event details and much more.

Our APIs include HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol), SMPP (Short Message Peer-to-Peer Protocol), SMTP (Short Message Transfer Protocol) and JSON (JavaScript Object Notation), none of which require you to have any pre-existing software. Since not all APIs are the same, however, you should think carefully about your organisation’s needs and about which API is right for you. Here’s what you need to know:

SMPP API

For organisations that will be sending or receiving large volumes of batch messages (50 000+ monthly), this is the ideal API. Designed to handle high volumes at high speeds, this robust connection supports text, unicode, binary SMS and flash messaging (like all of our other APIs). Panacea Mobile’s SMPP server is compliant with the version 3.4 specification (described in the SMPP Specification). Click here to view our ready-to-use SMPP sample code.

HTTP API

For low message volumes, your best choice is the HTTP API. This connection offers the widest range of features that you can implement into your applications. At Panacea Mobile, we have integrated this API in PHP as well as Java. This option is the simplest way of programming your connection, and is installed by default on most operating systems. Click here to view our HTTP sample code.

SMTP (Email to SMS) API

Sending an SMS from a server-generated e-mail to a mobile handset is simple with the SMTP protocol. This option can be particularly useful should you need to send high-volume notification alerts. However, SMTP does not feature two-way messaging, meaning that it cannot receive incoming messages for you. For this function, you would need to make use of SMPP or HTTP. Click here to see how simple it is to send text messages via SMTP.

If you want to get started quickly, we invite you to make use of our library of sample scripts. Should you wish to know more about the various APIs that we offer, contact us by clicking here. We are a leading mobile services company and, because we’re so confident about what it is that we do, we charge no sign-up fee.

Hannah Moore is a freelance journalist based in Cape Town, South Africa.

Image credits: socialsignal.com

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Let’s begin here: Why are our forests so important? Well, the obvious answer is that their trees regulate the air we breathe by absorbing CO2 (the stuff we exhale, for those who skipped Biology at school). Without these leafy miracles, humans wouldn’t be able to sustain life on Earth. But did you know that the world’s rainforests are also home to as much as half of life on earth? No? Nor did I.

And yet, an area of forested land the size of a football pitch is lost due to deforestation every four seconds. The biggest causes of loss of forested land are agricultural expansion, urban development and logging. The latter, which produces the world’s paper-based goods, is responsible for whopping 35% of tree felling. And the sad truth of it all? Nearly 90% of paper used at the office and at home is thrown away. What’s more, research has found that office printers are substantially high emitters of CO2 – another reason for which paper-based communication is becoming problematic.

Not many business owners and managers are oblivious of these statistics, yet most of them remain reluctant to commit to a policy of paperless communication due to security concerns and the perceived lower response rate.

At this point, SMS (short message service) text messaging enters our narrative. By communicating with clients, colleagues and employees via SMS, businesses score on three levels:

Reduced costs: By switching to paperless communication with SMS, small businesses can save over R500 000 per annum. This includes reduced electricity bills, as well as the decreased need for paper, printing ink and toner.

Increased efficiency: Now that you won’t have to store mounds of paper at the office, you can use your office space more efficiently. What’s more, data will be more accessed and shared more easily, thereby actually increasing your customer response rates.

Automatic filing of electronic documents can be done with a host of software packages, which ultimately reduces your company’s margin for human error.

Not only does SMS address all these (and other) issues, it has fast become the preferred method of communication for a large and growing proportion of your customer base. Indeed, many other wireless communication options, such as e-mail and social networking, are considered less personal than SMS – a functionality that is enabled on 100% of handsets currently produced.

Give it some thought and perhaps you’ll soon agree: Maybe our tree-loving friends aren’t as starry-eyed as we had once thought; maybe what they are promoting can have a tangible, profitable effect in your business?

Could you see yourself switching to paperless communication for one or more of the following purposes? (:) Then don’t delay; you could be saving some serious cash while making the world a greener place, too!

• Quotations

• Orders

• Competitions

• Promotions

• Updates

• Invoices

• Event details

• Coupons

Click here to find out more about Panacea Mobile’s SMS Gateway or contact one of our consultants.

Hannah Moore is a freelance journalist based in Cape Town, South Africa.

The post Going Green with SMS appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

By definition, bulk SMS marketing is the most economic marketing method existing today. SMS can be used as a marketing technique for companies to promote their merchandise. SMS can also be used in many other fields, some being corporate bodies such as banks where SMS can be used to inform customers of account transactions, the stock exchange is able to give tips to share holders on share movements via SMS, and schools can update students on admission tips, status and exams results all through the means of SMS. These are just a few of the many spheres with which companies can tap into what is being called the SMS revolution, where SMS services are being used by all sorts of companies to make individuals aware of their businesses, whether it be through reminders, coupons, promotion updates or competitions.

More and more marketers are now using or considering using SMS marketing as part of their integrated marketing communication plan. SMS marketing campaigns are really great as they have the ability to integrate with other marketing mediums quite easily. SMS campaigns are also really effective because many individuals who receive marketed SMS messages are likely to spread the word about the company concerned, meaning many individuals talk about the messages they receive on their mobile phones. Almost every person between the ages of 15 and 60 now has a mobile phone; that is a huge portion of the population who own mobile devices that have the capability of receiving SMS traffic. This makes text messaging a lucrative method of advertising and customer service.

In an ever-increasing digital world, it’s practicable to make use of SMS gateway providers to bridge the gap between the following areas: economical marketing styles, contemporary marketing techniques, commercial interest, the urgency for simplicity and burdened consumers. It is because of this that so many companies are moving towards bulk SMS campaigns to market their brands, in the endeavor to acquire the bulk business they need.

Panacea Mobile is a really efficient SMS Gateway Provider which can assist with any of your marketing needs. One of their biggest clients can agree that their platform is fantastic; this client will also vouch for the bulk business they have received as a result of bulk messaging.

‘Panacea Mobile are truly mobile experts, and has added value to my business in a much wider context’. Johann van Tonder, Naspers Labs.

The post Bulk SMS leads to Bulk Business appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

The host on the evening, Jonathan Ross, made a humorous yet excellent point: ‘this is the one and only awards ceremony where the guests are encouraged to leave their mobile phone switched on’.

The Global Mobile awards 2011 took place in a special ceremony during the Mobile Word Congress on the 15th February 2011; it was followed by the official Congress Party and Awards Celebration event which was held at the beautiful National Palace in Montjuic. Not only was the event a real breathtaking affair where guests were dazzled by an entertaining host, British TV and radio presenter Jonathan Ross; a Grammy and Brit award-winning singer/songwriter, Duffy; and internationally acclaimed indie rock band Metric; but the event was also a brilliant way for guests and prospective clients to get together to socialize and network in an informal setting. This event is composed of the mobile industry’s senior industry leaders, executives, media, analysts and influencers; its can be assumed that most guests relish in the fact that there are so many esteemed individuals to socialize with.

The Global Mobile Awards 2011 had more attendees, more outstanding exhibitors, more CEOs delivering keynotes, more CEOs in attendance, more conference attendees, and more app developer conferences than ever before (GSMA, 2011).

For all the winners – companies and high profile executives who are fortunate enough to receive an award at the 2011 event (along with all the other winners from previous years), there are many benefits which occur as a result of the award received (GSMA, 2011):

1) Competitive differentiation – an Award win helps to differentiate products and services in intensely competitive global and domestic markets.
2) Increased awareness amongst sales prospects – the Awards ceremonies are attended by dozens of C-suite executives from all the major mobile operators, vendors, app developers, content providers and executives from a host of converging industries
3) Global media coverage – winners are promoted by key on-line and print media partners around the world.
4) A unique promotional platform – The awards are promoted to thousands of media representatives both pre, during and post the Mobile World Congress
5) Global recognition for local projects – the Awards shine a spotlight on best practice in markets around the world, drawing attention to innovative applications and services
6) Recognition of excellence – for employees, investors, customers and partners. The awards provide unique recognition of leadership and recognition at the single most important event for the industry.

Companies are able to enter themselves into the competition; however there are certain categories such as ‘Global Mobile App Awards’, Best Mobile Handset/Device and the ‘Chairmans Award’ which are selected via a nomination process only.

The award categories at the event ceremony are as follows (GSMA, 2011):
Category 1 – Global Mobile App Awards
1a: Apps of the Year
1b: Best Mobile App
Category 2 – Mobile Advertising & Marketing
2a: Best Mobile Advertising & Marketing Campaign
Category 3 – Best Mobile Business & Enterprise
3a: Best Mobile Enterprise Product or Solution
3b: Best Mobile Money Product or Solution
Category 4 – Social & Economic Development
4a: Best use of Mobile for Social & Economic Development
4b: Best Mobile Money for the Unbanked Award
4c: Best Product, Initiative or Service for Underserved Segments
Category 5 – Mobile Innovation
5a: Best M-Health Innovation
5b: Best Mobile Learning Innovation
5c: Best Mobile Innovation for Utilities
5d: Best Mobile Innovation for Automotive & Transport
5e: Best Embedded Mobile Device (Non-Handsets)
Category 6 – ‘Green Mobile Award’
6a: Green Mobile Award for Best Green Product/Service or Performance
Category 7 – Best Mobile Devices
7a: Best Mobile Device
7b: Device Manufacturer of the Year
Category 8 – Best Technology
8a: Best Mobile Broadband Technology
8b: Best Mobile Technology for Emerging Markets
8c: Best Technology Breakthrough
8d: Best Customer Care & CRM
Category 9 – Outstanding Achievement Awards

• GSMA Chairman’s Award
• Government Leadership Award

The 2012 Congress promises (GSMA, 2011):

1) A world-class conference featuring visionary keynotes and panel discussions
2) An exhibition featuring more than 1,400 companies
3) App Planet – the Centre of the Mobile Apps Universe
4) An awards programme highlighting innovative mobile solutions around the world
5) The world’s best venue for mobile industry networking, business opportunities, and deal-making

With 2012 around the corner, its time for companies to start pre-paring their entry forms for the upcoming year. The awards will open for entry from the beginning of September 2011, when full details on new categories, criteria, rules and entry process will be published, along with on-line entry forms. To attend the Global Mobile Exhibition and Awards, attendees can purchase various passes offering different access options. The Global Mobile awards 2012 will take place in Barcelona as part of the Mobile World Congress on the 28th February 2012; it is sure to be an unparalleled experience.

For global updates, follow @MobileWorldLive for GSMA news, updates, videos and customer feedback

The post The Global Mobile Awards appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

One in ten: The number of South Africans who own a landline.

105%: The cell phone penetration rate amongst South African youth.

25.6 million: The number of local MXit users who are in the 15-26 age bracket.

To most of us, these statistics seem unrelated, but for Katherine de Tolly and Marlon Parker, they represented an opportunity to make counselling more accessible to South African youth in a medium that is both comfortable and familiar to them.

Katherine de Tolly currently heads up Cell-Life, a Cape Town-based company that provides counselling and vital health information to people infected and affected by HIV/Aids in South Africa. Cell-Life offers two distinct services, both of which can be accessed via MXit Cares, a special instant messaging mobile platform that is freely accessible and through which youth can engage in confidential chats with trained counsellors.

The first of these services is called RedChatZone. By offering live mobile counselling Mondays to Thursdays between 15:00 and 17:00, this initiative has already reached more than 21 000 people since its inception in 2009. The therapists are all trained by the National Aids Helpline, which, in South Africa, is free to call from a landline, but expensive to call from a cell phone. As a result, the chat service is a viable alternative to having to call the NAHL from a landline (which is also often within earshot of others).

As a second service by Cell-Life, ‘Red’ is an information portal that provides regularly updated HIV information to people. Users add the contact like they would any other, and by looking at the stats, it would seem that they do so in the droves: Since 2009, close to 60 000 individuals have added Red as a contact.

Marlon Parker, Founder of RLabs

HIV might be one of the country’s biggest social problems, but it is certainly not the only one. Marlon Parker is the founder of RLabs, a drug counseling service on MXIt. Due to Parker’s brother’s struggle with drugs, the cause is especially close to his heart.

Through the RLabs service called Angel, individuals have access to relevant and helpful drug addiction-related information, as well as to a live mobile counseling service via MXit. Angel has so far helped about 120 000 MXit users, of which 80% are between the ages of 13 and 25. According to recent surveys, the issues addressed include problems like stress, drug addiction, family and relationship issues. Angel is also available as a mobi site, for those who do not have access to MXit. What’s more, this RLabs initiative was selected as a finalist for the 2010 Bees Awards, in the category of the Best Use of Mobile – a huge honour and a sign of the project’s social value.

So, programmes like RLabs and Cell-Life are clearly reaching thousands of South Africans a day, causing somewhat of a revolution in mobile counseling. The benefits? Well, there are a few:

• Affordability. Typically, data costs are around $0.01 per counseling session.

• Privacy. Since youngsters already spend a lot of time on their mobiles, nobody needs to know when they are chatting to a counselor.

• Efficiency. Once counselors have been trained to understand ‘SMS language’, they can speak to numerous clients at once.

• Effectiveness. According the National Aids Helpline statistics, about 80% of the calls it receives are hoaxes. With mobile-based counseling, this number has decreased drastically.

But what are the challenges to this infantile project?

• Bandwidth. “On World AIDS Day last year, thanks to some advertising done, there were over 1,000 people waiting. This ended up crashing [our] system,” says de Tolly.

• Human resources. The number of counselors is still too low to support the growing need for services like these.

• Funding. Since these projects are not-for-profit, financial support still remains an issue.

However, despite these setbacks, it remains certain that mobile-based counseling is set to impact the social landscape in South Africa in a very tangible way. To find out more about how you can help this worthy cause, contact Marlon Parker of RLabs here.

Hannah Moore is a freelance journalist based in Cape Town, South Africa.

How can I get MXit?

1. On your mobile phone, go to http://m.mxit.com
2. Download and install MXit
3. Register for MXit
4. Start chatting!

The post Mobile Counselling: The MXit Revolution appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

How and why did you enter the field of mobile advertising?

(Well, technically we are not only in mobile advertising, per se. I like to think of Panacea Mobile as a mobile technology provider, with value-added services that range from communication to advertising.) I guess the answer to this question is quite organic, in the sense that I never really had to ‘enter’ the market. I started working while mobile was already huge, especially in Africa where it is known to be a primary distribution channel. So, mobile and web are the only real channels I am completely familiar with, and am therefore confident to run a business in. However, that said, I have started looking at other more traditional businesses to run as a hobby, just to see if I have what it takes

What is your role at Panacea Mobile?

When working in your own company, you tend to do as much of everything as possible. So, the roles are varied. However, I have a product marketing background and studied Economics and Strategic Business Management, so from a mixture of that I tend to focus on Sales and Business Development in SA, as well as in foreign markets. I am also involved in product features and general User Interface. We are a small company, so we share a lot of responsibility.

Stefano Sessa (right) with co-founder Donald Jackson and Samantha Goldberg at the Apps World Event in Cape Town

You’re your own boss. What are some of the rewards and challenges that come with that?

Certainly the biggest challenge has been to ensure that the market knows our value and what it is that we do. In our industry, there are a lot of fly-by-night businesses and they come and go. This poses a real hurdle for any legitimate businesses to succeed. It’s important to be able to filter the good from the bad and to ensure our potential customers that they are in good hands.

Panacea Mobile is moving forward in leaps and bounds. What, would you say, is the most important reason for Panacea being ahead of its competitors?

Well, to be honest, we don’t really keep a close eye on our competitors. Instead, we focus on our clients and ensure that their needs are met, thereby setting our own standard. We build tools for our clients, who range from advertising agencies, to corporates, to other telecommunications businesses. We ensure that they have the tools to easily communicate with their clients, without too much human intervention. These tools are what puts us ahead of the game, as we apply our skills to the exact requirements of our clients.

Tell us a surprising fact about you – something not many people know!

I’m scared of polka dots.

If you were the brand of a car, what car would you be?

Oooohh, tough question. Most likely a Land Rover.

There is often a stigma associated with SMS marketing, since there are a lot of so-called ‘spammers’ out there. In a few sentences, how would you convince a sceptic to the benefits of mobile advertising?

Look, there are various forms of SPAM, and people are very private when it comes to their cellphones. However, a lot of people are not aware of the documents they have signed and the rights they have ceded when doing so. As with anything, businesses will try and send you commercial messages no matter what the channel. SMS Marketing is very effective – it’s cheap, it’s direct and response rates are immediate.

That being said – Panacea Mobile has a GLOBAL opt-out list, which incorporates all official opt-out lists. What this means is that you, as an individual consumer, will not be contacted by any of our clients if you have opted out to any of their previous campaigns, or if your name is on the direct Marketing Association’s Do Not Contact list, which can be found here: www.optout.co.za. However, it’s still important to be aware of the exact rights of the consumer (and the business) in this regard, as it is not illegal to contact consumers via SMS – there are loopholes that allow for this to happen. Have a look at the Consumer Protection Act to inform yourself, and insure that you interpret the document correctly. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact our team.

What do you love most about what you do?

I love the learning curve. I’ve met some very smart people and I have a great team to work with. I could be selling peanut butter in Uganda with this team and still have a blast!

The post Up-close-and-personal with Panacea Mobile MD, Stefano Sessa appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

I sat down with Donald to find out what makes him tick and what he thinks are some of the most exciting developments in the industry at present. Here’s what he had to say:

How did you land up in the field of mobile advertising?

While I was studying [Computer Science] in Port Elizabeth, I did freelance projects after hours. One of those projects had to do with an interactive mobile campaign management system and ever since then, I’ve known it would be an area I would want to be involved in.

And how did Panacea Mobile come about?

After doing enterprise consulting for a while, I realised that there was a significant need for reliable and robust software in the mobile messaging industry. I developed a gateway taking into account prior experience and teamed up with Stefano Sessa to make a business out of it.

What is the most rewarding part of working for yourself?

Donald Jackson at the Mobile World Congress earlier this year

I enjoy having the ability to choose the direction that I want to take myself or the business in, and the rewards associated with making a good choice in that regard.

What is a typical day in the life of a programmer at your level?

I’m a firm believer in planning, so I spend a large amount of my day planning architecture and processes before I even begin. Once I’m done with my planning, I delegate some tasks, and others I do myself.

What do you love most about what you do?

I love preparing a new system, implementing it and then testing it to find that it works exactly as I designed it to.

What programming tools do you use?

I develop on a Macbook Pro using Eclipse and a CentOS Linux virtual machine for compilation and testing.

Describe your programming style in three words.

Simple but effective.

Do you ever think about taking your talents overseas with you? Why?

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t. I like the idea of living and working in Silicon Valley with all the technological innovations that are accessible there.

When you’re not programming, what are you doing?

I’m a sports nut. If I’m not watching sport, I’m playing it.

What, in your opinion, is the most exciting development in the mobile market at the moment?

The emergence of near field communication technology on new mobile phones is going to open the door to a host of innovations that I can’t wait to see.

What mobile phone do you have?

I have an HTC Desire Z running Android 2.2.1.

What, according to you, does the future of computer programming hold?

I think new technologies and languages will emerge as being able to cater for the increasing need for web-based applications.

What advice can you give to young, up-and-coming programmers out there?

I would definitely advise them to have an understanding of mobile development, whether that be web or application based. Oh, and don’t take short cuts – ever.

Hannah Moore is a freelance journalist based in Cape Town, South Africa.

The post Behind the Scenes with Panacea's CTO, Donald Jackson appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

A recent report (June, 2011) by Pew Internet breaks down the stats even further: According to the study, 13% of adult Internet users have an account with Twitter – that’s roughly 165 million individuals. Of the 13% that are on Twitter, 54% access the social network service via their mobile phones. Between 2010 and 2011 alone, Twitter mobile use increased by a staggering 182%, according to Twitter, Inc. (Did you know that by 2014, mobile Internet use is set to take over desktop web surfing entirely?).

With the explosion of mobile tweeting, the reach and influence of Twitter has dramatically expanded. Now, users can air their thoughts on the go, when they’re ‘in the moment’, so to speak. In fact, although Twitter may not actually be real life, it has created a surprisingly powerful platform for some very influential people. However, that does not include everyone.

It would be natural to think that the most influential tweeters are those with the most followers. It would, however, also be incorrect. Prominence on Twitter is measured not by number of followers, but by how often someone’s Twitter name is mentioned by another user (including, but not limited to re-tweets). This measure is known as the individual’s Influence Score and is ranked on a 0-to-100 index.

Now, whilst the most-followed tweeters might include Britney Spears and Lady Gaga, these famous pop-stars certainly aren’t the most re-quoted users. Interestingly enough, religious and political leaders, as well as athletes, television icons and writers are amongst the most influential on this social media platform. They form the so-called ‘Twitterati’ or the Tweet Elite. Popular US talk show host Stephen Colbert, for example, has (only) 2 million followers (that’s nine million less than Lady Gaga), and yet his Influence Score is above 70; hers is only 41. Colbert also had the most re-tweeted tweet of 2010.

Pew Internet recently published a user infographic, which provides a nice overview of what I have just explained. It states that of the millions of tweets sent out per day, 71% don’t actually produce any reaction, and of those that do, 85% generate only one response. What’s more, 50% of the attention on Twitter is attracted by only 0.5% of its users. These stats prove that the majority of Tweeters aren’t as influential as they’d like to think; and that there is a small, privileged group of users who do most of the influencing, so to speak.

No write-up on the influence and growth of Twitter would be complete without mentioning the rise of so-called ‘Twitter Revolutions’. Indeed, Twitter has been a powerful catalyst in a number of very real, grassroots revolutions, enabling citizens in autocratic societies to bring attention to their growing discontent, and in some cases, even spark an uprising. As pointed out by Wikipedia (2011), the use of social media in the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, for example, has been extensive:

As one Egyptian activist succinctly tweeted during the protests there, ‘We use Facebook to schedule the protests, Twitter to coordinate, and YouTube to tell the world.’”

Based in Egypt, Google Executive Waol Ghonim has gained a following of over 160 000 tweeters, as he provides a day-to-day account of the events on the ground. However, whilst Ghonim might be making a real impact in his environment, he certainly isn’t as prominent as this guy, who currently holds top position as the world’s most influential tweeter.

PS – Follow Panacea Mobile on Twitter here.

Hannah Moore is a freelance journalist based in Cape Town, South Africa.

Image Credit: www.labnol.org, www.gottabemobile.com

The post Twitter Mobile: Growth and Influence appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

Premium Rate numbers, which are also known as shortcodes are 5 digit numbers that are most commonly used for competitions and promotions. Another purpose in which shortcodes are commonly used is the sale of mobile content or subscription services. Shortcodes enable your customers to be billed by the network operator in exchange for ringtones, wallpapers, videos and mp3′s. Shortcodes are also commonly used as a means of donating money to charitable organizations. With SMS being the channel of choice for millions of consumers, it is no wonder that companies are opting for shortcodes as their preferred marketing strategy of choice.

Let’s have a look at some of the other benefits which come about as a result of using premium rate messaging:

1. With so many companies competing with one another to get ahead,  it has resulted in huge volumes of advertising slogans and advertisements being directed and pushed on to the consumers at hand. This is making it very difficult to ensure your brand is heard and remembered. However with premium rate messaging, it is very effective as it is more memorable than long phone numbers and website names. The idea of Shortcodes is to attract an interested client, and then the client has the power to interact immediately making shortcodes an effective and immediate call to action; your prospect can respond before the moment has passed. SMS provides an instant response round the clock.

2. Premium rate messaging provides the customer with a great brand experience. It will ensure the customer always associates a unique and active experience with the brand. Shortcodes are also effective in raising and maintaining brand awareness, as there is active participation in the marketing experience. Premium rate messaging enables the company to engage with prospects at the point of display, allowing the company to establish a relationship with their potential customer ahead of the other market-related competition.

3. Shortcodes are convenient, cost effective and easy to use. Shortcodes will enable your business to partake in big campaigns while still sticking to a budget and being able to rest easy with the knowledge that the campaign will be effective as the process is really easy to employ.

4. Shortcodes are really effective at managing to generate hot sale leads really quickly. The enquiries that will come through will come from interested customers. By receiving messages from the interested customers, it makes it possible to capture the mobile phone number of the individuals being targeted, and this is great for the company. Either the number will be used for a data list or the responder can use the number to follow up with the potential client. Not only will shortcodes attract interested customers as well as acquire the information of these potential clients, but the other great thing about shortcodes is that the responses that will come through almost immediately. This will allow the company to engage directly with the consumer and it will also allow the company to instantly measure the success of dual marketing activities making real-time reporting possible.

5. Premium rate messaging is often used for promotions, competitions and donations as it has the power to be viral and is thereby very effective for these types of campaigns. It has been found that shortcodes manage to create a lot of hype amongst the consumers being targeted, the consumers usually forward the SMS’s on to their friends who they feel may be interested. This is really great as it means the consumers are indirectly marketing the brand by spreading the word.

Panacea Mobile offers the Premium Rate Messaging service in South Africa and would be glad to assist you if you have any queries or if you would like to move forward with starting your very own shortcode campaign.

The post 5 Reasons to start your very own Premium Rate Messaging Campaign appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

Whilst it is true that most adults in developed countries own a cellphone, there is no denying that children are far quicker at learning the various features of these multi-purpose gadgets. Indeed, our youth have entered the era of the Mobile Generation, or Generation Text, as author and psychologist Dr. Michael Osit has named it.

Service providers, handset manufacturers and mobile marketers are becoming increasingly aware of the fact that young mobile phone users (under the age of 24) represent an important (and surprisingly sophisticated) segment of the market. According to market research company GfK Tech Talk, nearly 90% of children in the United States between the ages of 12 and 15 own a mobile phone. Now more than ever, the world is at their feet… or at their fingertips, shall we say.

What’s more, while we may initially have assumed that youngsters represent a rather straightforward target group, that fact is no longer true. Many children who own a cellphone are already on their second handset, meaning that they hold an assortment of embedded brand perceptions and preferences. In an interesting study, GfK found that 74% of children are involved in the selection process of their handset – and they certainly aren’t choosing the kiddie phones that were popular five years ago. Rather, they are selecting handsets that allow them to engage to their full potential with its services and features. As highlighted by Sullivan of msnbc.com:

Teens aren’t just using their phones to talk. From rapid-fire texting to full-fledged Web browsing to videos and video games, cell phones have become portable computers.”

Another fascinating survey by Accenture Ltd. showed that whilst 50% of so-called ‘Baby Boomers’ (currently aged 45 to 65) prefer computers over other technology products, only 27% prefer mobile handsets. Of the ‘Generation Y’ (18 to 24 years old), 51% would rather use mobile handsets and only 22% prefer PCs. These figures serve to demonstrate the generational mobile gap and the extent to which mobile phones have become the ecosystem within which young people live their lives.

The problem, however, is that as youngsters are taking these changes in their stride and adapting without much difficulty, their parents are often left in the dust. This has resulted in a massive cultural divide between parents and their technologically more astute kids (Osit, 2008).

A large reason for the divide is due to the fact that older generations have spent so much time getting to know the technologies of the past, that they have limited interest in learning about the gadgets and technical inventions of the present. At the same time, however, they don’t want to be left behind, and rightly so.

In an effort to combat this divide, phones specifically designed for seniors (60+) were introduced to the market. Manufacturers such as Just5, Doro (Sweden) and iBall (India) are industry leaders in this regard, offering handsets with easy-to-read buttons, large text, brighter screens, SOS buttons and other basic features.

Whilst these inventions may be ideal for emergency use by seniors who can no longer hear or see very well, who is to say that most of them don’t want the added bells and whistles, too? Indeed, simple phones for the elderly don’t seem appropriate for adults between the ages of, say 40 and 60, who may struggle a little in the orientation stages of their mobile phone usage, but who are keen to keep up-to-date with exciting trends and innovations in the market.

The bottom line is simple: Mobile advertisers, manufacturers and service providers need to recognise that generations, like individuals, have personalities. It is of absolute importance that we can appeal to one market segment, without entirely isolating another. Perhaps that is why, in the context of generational gaps, direct marketing is so effective. By honing in on each carefully-researched consumer group, such advertising is able to appeal to a wide range of individuals, across generational gaps.

If you, too, would like to learn more about how direct advertising can help you reach across the generational gap, click here.

Hannah Moore is a freelance journalist based in Cape Town, South Africa.

Image Credit: http://blogs.voanews.com, http://dukethinkingonline.blogspot.com, http://www.cloudave.com

The post The Mobile Generation Gap appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

Gone are the days when mobile phones were used only for simple purposes like making calls or sending SMS’s. With the introduction of the smartphone to the global mobile market, the ways in which we use our handsets have dramatically increased. Who would’ve thought, for example, that one day we’d be able to stream live television broadcasting to our handsets? Well, someone obviously did, and his name is Clive Sinclair.

Clive Sinclair's MTV-1 (1977)

British entrepreneur and inventor, Sinclair was the man with the vision for mobile TV. In 1977, he invented the first television small enough to fit inside a pocket – the MTV-1. Funded by approximately £1.6 million in British Government grants, its screen measured only 2 inches, but could receive TV signals in various countries.

Technology

Nowadays, the technology behind mobile TV can either be that of 3G streaming or Digital Video Broadcasting–Handheld (DVB-H). 3G technology makes on-demand video content available to mobile users, but is dependent on cellular network transmissions. DVB-H, on the other hand, is used for live mobile TV broadcasting as it works on a one-to-many basis and uses dedicated network transmitters, thus allowing for the digital terrestrial broadcast of live TV channels to a mobile phone. This differs from 3G technology, which operates on a one-to-one transmission basis, thereby causing frequency and bandwidth limitations.

In addition, DVB-H enabled handsets posses special chips that sit alongside the memory chips reserved for the processing of calls, music and other functions. As a result, the streaming of live TV does not interfere with other day-to-day functions of the handset.

South African Context

In November 2005, MultiChoice was granted a test license from the Independent Communication Authority of South Africa (ICASA) to conduct a DVB-H trial.

The predictions were that by 2008, mobile TV would become the next biggest value-added service in the local telecommunications industry. It was, however, only roughly five years later that e.mobile (the mobile television division of the eNews channel and Channel O) commercially launched mobile TV in South Africa. DStv Mobile (the mobile television division of MultiChoice) was rewarded its license shortly afterwards, in November 2010.

Both of South Africa’s primary service providers (MTN and Vodacom) currently offer mobile TV to their subscribers. MTN’s monthly subscription fee is R10.00 per month for 3G streaming (which is capped and, as mentioned above, works differently to DVB-H).

Vodacom initially launched its DVB-H service as a promotional offer (free of charge), but customers had to begin paying for the add-on feature as of 4 April this year. According to Vodacom, the monthly fee for the DVB-H package is R36.00, which provides access to eight pre-selected DStv channels and the four (free) e.mobile channels, 24/7. The content broadcast is live, and is exactly the same as that seen on regular TV.

The Drawbacks

According to Bronwyn Keene-Young, e.tv’s Group COO,

The launch of e.Mobile TV in South Africa makes our channels accessible to our viewers at times when they normally would not be able to watch TV.”

Indeed. However, although it might be a nifty feature to be able to watch TV on your mobile phone when you happen to be away from home and feel the need, there are certainly a number of drawbacks that serve to question the sustainability of this service in the long run.

The most obvious limitation seems to apply to the added costs. Although ICASA has said that no additional TV license will be required for the usage of mobile TV in South Africa, you will still be required to pay the monthly subscription fee to your service provider, whether that be for the 3G or DVB-H service. This begs the question: If you already have a television set at home, why bother?

Secondly, whilst many smartphones are 3G enabled, DVB-H handsets in South Africa currently only include the Nokia 5330, Nokia N96 and the ZTE F900, and the latter two require software upgrades before they can be used for mobile TV purposes. Phones that are not DVB-H enabled are required to be connected to the somewhat clumsy (and pricey) mobile decoder for live viewing.

Thirdly, Vodacom’s local DVB-H coverage is in South Africa’s main cities only – Johannesburg, Pretoria, Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Rustenberg, Mbombela (Nelspruit), Polokwane, P.E and Durban. Where does that leave the rest of the country?

With the technology surrounding mobile TV still clearly in its infancy stages, it remains to be seen whether this development will take off or not. The sound and quality of the service offered locally is said to be of a high standard, however, so it may stand a chance after all. What do you think?

Hannah Moore is a freelance journalist based in Cape Town, South Africa.

The post Mobile TV: Where did it come from and where is it headed? appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

With the App Obsession on an all time rise, the question I want to know is what are the 10 most popular and well-known Apps being downloaded by global Mobile users. Some App’s are free and others app’s unfortunately come at a cost. It is quite interesting to see which paid Apps are being downloaded because when people are spending money on Apps it means the App really has to have a good reputation among mobile ‘fundi’s’.

Top 10 Apps Overall, by Downloads:

1. Facebook Mobile: This App which has been classified as the most popular App around, allows users to access the social network from their mobile phone through text messages, e-mails, downloaded applications or a web browser. The purpose of this mobile App is to allow Facebook users to view and update their pages and profile on-the-go.

2. eBuddy Messenger: eBuddy is a browser-based web and mobile messenger service supporting various instant messaging services. eBuddy provides improved stability across the instant messaging platform, more reliable contact lists and groups, and the user is able to choose a colour scheme to suit their taste; perhaps this is why eBuddy is in second place on the most popular list. eBuddy enables the user to send any image from their phone to their friends; they are able to send directly from their camera or they can send from their phones memory.

3. Nimbuzz: Nimbuzz is a messaging service combining instant messaging, presence and VoIP. It interfaces with several popular messaging services such as Skype, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, ICQ, Google Talk, AIM, Gadu-Gadu and Twitter as well social networks such as Facebook and MySpace. Nimbuzz lets you call, chat, message, and swap files on the go, for free. It combines all your buddies from MSN, Yahoo, AIM, Google Talk and more. It does this through one contact list and one login. Nimbuzz Mobile uses an internet data plan or Wifi on your mobile phone. As a result, all the benefits from the PC will be available on the user’s mobile phone, and the user will therefore save money on long distance and international phone calls.

4. Migg33: Migg33 was released in December of 2005 as the first global, mobile community, and has quickly spread around the world. Growing on the strength of user recommendations, and bringing the power of Internet to anyone with a mobile phone, more than 40 million users in over 200 countries have joined the mobile community.

5. Opera Mini browser: Opera is known for bringing a first-class web experience to thousands of mobile phones; the Opera rendering engine displays complete webpages and allows the user to switch between open webpages through the use of tabs, the user is also able to launch their favourite website with a single click through Speed Dial. Opera’s well-designed user interface allows the user to navigate seamlessly and efficiently on their mobile devices. The browser comfortably adjusts to the user’s needs by switching between portrait and landscape mode and allowing the user to adjust their font size for easier reading.

6. Yahoo! Mobile: Yahoo mobile provides a homepage for the user’s mobile that lets the user stay connected, discover what’s new, and keep up with their world, from a single page. The user will be able to retrieve news and services from anywhere on the web; this service is specifically designed for mobile phones and is therefore really fast and efficient and is constantly being updated. The other benefit of this App is that the user can personalize it with their favourite interests, services, links, feeds, contacts, and more.

7. Google: Google is a world wide web search engine that indexes the greatest number of web pages. There were over two billion pages indexed by December 2001 and Google was able to search this index in less than a second, for free. In addition to the Google mobile app’s search aspect which is the app’s primary function, the app not only searches the Web, but it also searches the user’s phone’s address book and e-mail in-box, the user’s Web-based Gmail account, and Google Docs for results that match the user’s query.

8. Yahoo! Mail: Yahoo! Mail, otherwise known as Y! Mail, is a  free web mail service provided by Yahoo!. Currently it is the largest web-based email service. Yahoo ! Mail allows the user to sign into their personal email service from their phone’s browser; they are able to send, search, receive and reply to friends, family,  and any other important emails that have been sent to them.

9. Bitstream Bolt Browser: The Bitstream Bolt Browser allows the user to experience full desktop PC-style browsing on their mobile phone. It also allows the user to run web-based applications, like Mafia Wars and Google Docs. This efficient browser ensures that web content is never reformatted, repurposed, or removed; it allows the user to browse any site with the best page rendering available.

10. YouTube: Founded in February 2005, YouTube allows billions of people to discover, watch and share originally created videos. YouTube provides a forum for people to connect, inform and inspire others across the globe and acts as a distribution platform for original-content creators and advertisers, large and small. All the user needs to do is download the application and they will be able to watch unlimited video’s on their mobile phone; however although the app is free, it is important for users to be prepared for some potentially high streaming and downloading costs.

Some Extra Information:

Some of the most popular game app’s that have been downloaded are as follows (most of these are paid apps):

•    Doodle Jump – Simplistic platformer;
•    Tap Tap revenge 3 – Guitar Hero-style rhythm game;
•    Pocket God – You play God over primitive islanders;
•    Angry Birds – Inescapable catapulting fun;
•    Bejewled 2 + Blitz – Puzzler based on matching gemstones;
•    Traffic Rush – Solve puzzles based on traffic jams;
•    Flight Control – Air traffic control simulator.

The post Mobile Apps – What do the Users Love? Top 10 Most Popular Apps appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

Accessing the Internet over a phone used to be something mobile operators and advertisers only dreamt of. For years they spoke of the potential of the mobile Internet, but the phone’s small screen, the high price of access and the bandwidth demanded by content- heavy websites were obstacles.”

Since then, however, many things have changed. Screens are bigger, the bandwidth required is lower and affordable data bundles have made it possible for almost every mobile phone owner to access the world of the Internet via mobi sites on their handsets. In the following article, we celebrate this development and look at some of the best South African mobi sites to keep you entertained and in-the-know wherever you may be.

winemag.mobi

South Africa is renowned worldwide for its award-winning wine and wine-related events. Some of the most sought-after bottles originate from the beautiful estates along the Cape wine route – Constantia, Paarl, Franschhoek and Stellenbosch. Now wine lovers can explore the region with South Africa’s informative and innovative Wine Magazine at their fingertips.

m.mobilitybeat.com

If you’re passionate about technology and enjoy staying informed on the latest international tech trends, this is one site you’ll want to have saved in your bookmarks folder. Whether it’s the convoluted legal escapades in the mobile industry you’re interested in, or reviews on up-and-coming products, this mobisite has it all. By providing up-to-the-minute technology news headlines in chronological order, Mobility Beat keeps readers informed, whilst saving them time, too:

Instead of trying to keep track of many different sites, you can easily stay on top of your favourite news topics in one place.” (Mobility Beat, 2011).

wapedia.mobi

Knowledge is made easy with Wikipedia’s mobisite, Wapedia. As opposed to regurgitating an exhaustive list of search results, it will simply provide you with a concise and to-the-point overview of the topic you’re interested in. It isn’t as extensive as the original Wikipedia, but it’s definitely a handy tool and a great way to pass the time.

supersport.mobi

For all those sports fans out there, supersport.mobi is an essential information portal. Keeping you clued-up on the latest live scores, results and sport-related news headlines, Supersport’s mobi site is both practical and easy to use.

m.engadget.com

Go gadget crazy on Engadget’s mobi site! Launched in 2004, this web magazine’s interface is elegant and engaging; and the news stream relates to electronic product releases, exhibitions, reviews and in-depth analyses on the gadget industry.

m.mg.co.za

On the Mail & Guardian mobi site, you’ll have access to all the latest national and international news stories. The design is not the most attractive, but the site is still easy to navigate and finding the news you’re looking for shouldn’t take longer than a couple of seconds. Other mobile sites from M&G online include its Thought Leader Online page, which can be accessed at m.thoughtleader.co.za.

There you have it – some of our top suggestions for browsing the mobile Web. Please send us your comments and suggestions if there’s something you feel we’ve left out. We’d love to hear from you!

Hannah Moore is a freelance journalist based in Cape Town, South Africa.

The post The Best of the Mobile Web appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

With nearly 4 billion people owning a mobile phone and the Smartphone mobile share increasing at a rapid rate on a daily basis, the time has come in the advertising world to deliberate how to reach the consumer at the right place and the right time. The primary answer to this is LOCATION. Location is the frontrunner of advertising because it manages to pinpoint who we are as people and consumers. Consumers in this day and age are constantly seeking the next big thing, and wanting to know what is on offer in their location; it is this very same reason which is drawing people to the new concept of group buying where consumers are offered a different discounted offer in their city every day. Location is no new thing, ever since we were little we have been exposed to location based advertising, Chris Rothey from Mobile Marketer, explains early location based advertising really well:

‘Remember when we were kids on bikes and heard the ice cream truck bell from blocks away? That was my first experience of location-based mobile advertising – that bell. Heard from blocks away, it was a virtual storefront of the first order’.

He carries on to say that:

‘the only difference between that ice cream truck bell and today’s version of location-based mobile advertising is that now we have got cooler James Bond stuff’.

This example is so great because it allows us to understand exactly what is meant by location-based advertising. The bell is compared to the efficient location mobile ads that alert the consumers in the different areas, of restaurants, coffee shops, gas stations, pharmacy’s, and hotels nearby. A location based service relies on services such as GPS capability or other services such as Google Maps, Yelp or FourSquare, (anything that gives you directions or locates items on a map is a location based service). These services will then follow where you are and capitalize on that by using your information to send advertisements to you directly (obviously this topic is debatable as to whether it is okay to use a person’s information without their consent, but in this discussion we will be looking at the advantages of location-based mobile advertising).

The difficulty with location based mobile advertising comes when trying to alert the right people with the right directions at the right time. However apparently these difficulties are not that hard to overcome seeing as though location based mobile advertising is expected to be a $2.5 billion industry by 2015, according to Robyn Gee.

Let’s have a look at 3 reasons why large and small businesses should turn to location based mobile advertising in the future as their advertising medium of choice .

1. Location Based advertising has the ability to be more targeted:

Business owners will hopefully be able to use the channel to acquire hyper local exclusivity. A retailer will be able to reserve all ad inventory on a particular network for a specific device, with a specific 30 meter radius on a particular day. In order to increase the traffic inflow into the store,  the retailer will have 100% share of voice and push in the time required, which will ultimately generate coupon offers to every user on that device in the area. If there is a predetermined time limit for the coupon, there will be added urgency created which will prompt the consumer even further and they will be more likely to take advantage of the deal.

Another way for businesses, large and small, to make use of targeted location-based mobile advertising, would be to forge partnerships with a desired operator. This would allow new Smartphone registrants to opt into exclusive location specific deals by their desired retailers who are connected to their network operator.

2. Location Based advertising has the ability to be more dynamic:

Location based advertising has the potential to be the first direct interactive type of advertising which will factor in many types of variables from days of the week, to times, to location, to temperature, to special occasions. Obviously as these variables change so will the ads which are offered. To understand this more thoroughly here is an example: it’s a boiling hot day and you are sitting on a bench, sending an email, and all of a sudden, an ad appears on your phone making you aware of a great ice-cream place around the corner, exactly 500m away.

This feature will be really great as it is identifies the consumers requirements and then advertises accordingly.

3. Location Based advertising has the ability to be more engaging:

If the future of location-based mobile advertising is capable of becoming more engaging with the user, it will significantly increase the experience for the user and the advertiser. It would work as follows: when an individual is in a certain geographic location, an advertiser could run a site-specific awareness campaign. For instance: if an individual were in Cape Town South Africa, it would be possible to run an ad campaign promoting the table mountain cable cart; the location based mobile ad would read: “take a photo from the top of table mountain, submit it to the ‘appropriate site’, and you could win a trip overseas!”

From  a location based advertising perspective, it is highly effective as it will be able to pick up various consumers locations and it will be able to offer location based activities to that individual who will therefore be more likely to partake. From the consumers perspective, it is really beneficial as they are receiving relevant activity suggestions in which they can partake and will also be able to stand a chance to win a prize.

As a potential consumer, I look forward to being offered deals through location-based mobile marketing; I look forward to the day that I can be made aware of coffee shops, restaurants and boutique stores which are in my area and perhaps having a promotion (especially if I am in a new area for the first time). A world where advertising is targeted at the consumers location is going to change the role of marketing and advertising as it is today; companies are going to have to develop entirely new strategies… GOOD LUCK.

The post Location-Based Mobile Advertising appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

In these relatively early stages of the 3D mobile, however, consumers are faced with a number of questions. For example, are there any real benefits to owning a 3D handset? Also, how do the graphics actually work; and how will the smartphone market be affected by this new technology? These are some of the issues that we take a look at in the following paragraphs.

What is the technology behind 3D mobiles?

According to Knowyourmobile.com, the technology used for the glasses-free 3D smartphone is much the same as that used for the recently released Nintendo 3DS. The way it works is that the device has a so-called parallax barrier, which does the job that would normally be reserved for those goofy green-and-red 3D glasses we all remember from our childhood.

The fact that the mobile screen spans over such a small area is essential for the proper functioning of the parallax barrier; larger devices still require the user to wear the glasses in order to ensure that each eye receives a different image (by way of the two different colour frames). Our eyes then combine the different images, allowing us to experience the 3D effect. The parallax barrier works similarly, only that it sends the different images directly to the correct eye, permitting the user to form a 3D image without the use of the two-tone glasses.

So, should I buy one?

The response to that question depends entirely on the type of mobile phone user that you are. If you’re an avid mobile gamer or love to watch videos on your phone, for example, the answer is a big, fat ‘yes’. Indeed, 3D technology can add to the entertainment value of your mobile, by making content more engaging, interactive and exciting.

There are drawbacks, however: The device has to be held at a certain angle, or else the stereoscopic effect is lost. When you’re in the middle of a game, racing around corners in your high-speed virtual car or jumping over cliffs, that might be a little difficult to remember though.

The relatively small size of the screen is another limitation, which might cause the 3D smartphone to be swallowed up by bigger gaming devices, such as 3D tablets and TVs.

Apart from being used for gaming and watching videos, however, 3D smartphones can also be used to capture original multimedia footage, and convert it into 3D content.  The dual cameras built into these handsets have two lenses that are set apart from one another, insofar allowing users to create their own high definition, three-dimensional photos or videos. In addition, the LG Optimus makes the sharing of 3D content possible by featuring a variety of connectivity options such as HDMI and DLNA. Great if you have friends who care for such things; fairly useless if you don’t.

At the end of the day, although the 3D mobile might offer a couple of nifty features, it is unlikely to take the market by storm since it remains, essentially, a niche product. Indeed, whilst 3D functionality might be an exciting add-on feature for gaming and multi-media purposes, it is unlikely to yield high demand in the mainstream mobile industry, where practicality, reliability and streamlined elegance are still the order of the day.

Hannah Moore is a freelance journalist based in Cape Town, South Africa.

Image credit: knowyourmobile.com, smartphoneblogit.com, gadget.pdamu.com

The post The Arrival of the 3D Smartphone: What are the Benefits and how does it work? appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

With this I would like to know, when scientists say that in a few years from now mobile phones will be able to morph into just about any shape, they will be able to twist and bend and be disguised as almost anything; they will also be made of invisible technology, self-cleaning materials and solar technology, and you will actually be able to see right through them – would you say this is IMPOSSIBLE??

Future technology is so very exciting and inspiring but to the human mind it always seems a little unreasonable and far off. However when it comes to the mobile phone, scientists seem to manageably overcome the setbacks pretty quickly because unlike flying cars which require scientists to deal with external issues such as air collisions and gravity hazards, mobile phones are pretty straightforward and this results in much quicker technology progression. So let’s have a look at what we can expect in the upcoming decade.

Mobile Networks:
Mobile networks are going to be able to move data at several megabits per second; the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) is going to allow GSM, CDMA, Wi-fi and WiMax to work in conjunction with each other, allowing any type of packet data to move effortlessly between IMS-enabled networks. What this means is that individuals will be able to start an action on one type of IMS network and then end it on another (e.g.: start a call on a mobile and end it on a landline). Obviously IMS needs to be widely located before this technology will really kick in.

Handsets:
The shape and design of mobile phones in years to come, what will they look like? Some say the mobile phone will move into the watch space and merge with watch technology. You will actually be able to wear your mobile phone on your wrist.
Other experts say the future of handsets lies in the form of a chip, cell phone functionality will include certain aspects that are enabled by implants under your skin.
There are beliefs that mobile phones with holographic projection will be common place. Technology will be developed for mobile handsets to project, capture and transmit 3D images. The 3D images will be  created by using a projector with a laser source, and micro holographic optical elements lenses to project the display up above the phone.
And lastly, there have been theories that the cell phone design evolution will become:

two cellular ‘rings’ with rotating parts for function selection. The earpiece ring will be worn on the thumb and the mic will be worn on the pinky. This will mean that when friends use that wiggled hand gesture signalling “call me,” it will have added meaning!

Battery Life:
In terms of where battery life will be in the future evolution of cell phones, we can expect to see piezoelectric generators (which are already being used in some phones).  The generators are powered by kinetic energy, which means the more you use your phone, the more you charge your phone.  Kyocera recently unveiled a Kinetic Flexible OLED Cell Phone, which is not only capable of folding up like a wallet but its most appealing attribute is that it derives its energy from human interaction. The more you use the phone, the more kinetic energy is turned into an electric charge through an array of tiny piezoelectric generators. In other words, you’ll never have to worry about leaving the house with a semi-charged cell phone again.

The future of cell phone battery life will also include more efficient and green charging systems for mobile phones; sound power is the most likely method which will take cell phones to the next stage of green charging. The urgency for this type of charging in the future is to diminish the large amounts of toxic substances which are invading our country’s landfills due to inoperative cell phone batteries.

Let’s see if we will be looking back on this article in 10 years from now and thinking ‘Wow, it actually was POSSIBLE’.

The post The Mobile Evolution appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

This scene is etched into most of our memories, and although we might not give it much thought, there’s a good reason why.

When mobile company, Nokia released Snake, the world’s first game for mobile phones in 1998, they had struck gold not only because it became so popular, but more fundamentally, because their timing was perfect. The late nineties were a time in which the trend to own a cell phone was solidifying itself; a time in which people began to expect more from their mobile phones, other than just voice and SMS capability. A revolution ensued. As pointed out by Lategan of Memeburn.com (2011), the mobile gaming world has grown from

an 8-bit sanctuary for the inner most circles of geekdom to one of the most lucrative facets of mainstream entertainment”.

And the journey has been an interesting one. The early commercial mobile games of the nineties, such as Snake and Tetris, were mostly animated with black squares since the hardware of mobile phones was not yet suited to high-colour screens or sound effects beyond differently pitched beeps. However, with the introduction of the camera phone and better graphics a few years later, they were replaced with more complex, better quality applications.

By 2003, Nokia was so convinced of the success of mobile phone gaming, that it created its first handheld gaming platform, the Nokia N-Gage, which failed dismally because its impractical design made the device difficult to use as a phone.

Since then, however, a host of mobile phones particularly well-suited to gaming have entered the market. Apple’s iPhone as well as BlackBerry’s handsets are, for instance, particular popular gaming devices. These (and other) smartphones now offer a multitude of high quality (and often outright bizarre) mobile games, which are either pre-installed or, as is mostly the case, can be downloaded as an application. Some games, such as the interactive Gazuma, can even be played directly from the handset’s browser.

Indeed, there is an entire world of mobile phone gaming out there. A few of the games (such as Sudoku, the world’s most famous number puzzle) are engaging as well as intellectually stimulating. Others, such as the sensationally popular Paper Toss and Angry Birds applications for the iPhone, would appear to be complete time-wasters, but can be great for, well… wasting time. According to Memeburn.com, there had been more than 100 million downloads of Angry Birds by March this year, making it the most popular mobile game to date.

Although some mobile games and gaming applications are available in Symbian and Android versions, many others are only offered via the iOS platform. Whether or not this is a good thing is beyond the scope of this article. However, there remains little doubt that Apple is dominating the mobile gaming industry at present. Since the iPhone has an extremely accurate, built-in accelerometer, it knows exactly when and in what direction it is being moved. This has allowed developers to create games for the iPhone based on tilting, turning and shaking the device. Apple has even invented games which require the user to blow on the screen. Smule’s iPhone app, Ocarina, for example, turns the handset into a fully-functional wind instrument, by combining touch, tilt and human breath to create flute-like sounds. Click here to view a one minute video of an orchestra of iPhone Ocarinas. Well worth your time.

The future of mobile phone gaming certainly looks exciting, with innovations in multi-player games and 3D graphics likely to take the main stage. The PlayStation certified Sony Xperia Play, for example, is sure to set the 3D gaming world on fire with its slide-out gaming pad, shoulder buttons and the familiar PlayStation icons (a circle, cross, square and triangle). Watch this space for more on the latest developments in the mobile gaming world.

Hannah Moore is a freelance journalist based in Cape Town, South Africa.

Image credit: digitaltrends.com; my-symbian.com, mobiles5.com

The post The History of Mobile Phone Gaming: From Geekdom to Mainstream appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

Indeed, we take it for granted that we have on us at all times, a device that (to a large extent) organises our time, demands our attention and dictates our appointments. Perhaps this wouldn’t be so fascinating if the mobile phone had been around for longer. The first call on a hand-held mobile telephone, however, was made less than forty years ago. One must admit that it is fascinating to think how far we have come, in such a short amount of time.

Dr. Martin Cooper, holding the first mobile cell phone, the Motorola DynaTAC

It was Dr. Martin Cooper who (back in 1973) made that first cellphone call, using the famous, yet infamously clumsy Motorola DynaTAC (for DYNamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage). Its talk-time was only about half an hour, and it took another whole ten hours to recharge, but still, the breakthrough was massive. Cooper and his fellow inventors used the concept and technology of the already existing car phone and, after years of research, they finally applied what they had discovered to create the first portable cell phone.

The technology needed to create the first mobile phone was made possible with the invention of hexagonal cells in the 1960s, which facilitated network coverage over a large geographical area. The creation of the automatic ‘call handoff’ system (which took roughly two decades to complete) was also of paramount importance, since it allowed users to be mobile over a range of cell areas during a single conversation without dropping the phone call.

It was only in 1983, however, that Motorola released, as part of the so-called ‘first generation’ cell phones, a slimmed-down version of the TAC into the market, insofar beginning its commercial service. The handset was dubbed the ‘Brick’ for its inelegant shape and size and it cost approximately $7 400 (in today’s terms). In addition, it only had voice capability; the idea to incorporate SMS and other features was not yet prominent.

The 1990s saw the rise of the ‘second generation’ (2G) cell phones, which used digital instead of analog transmission. It was during this decade that the rise in mobile phone usage earnestly began; a movement that was aided by the introduction of pre-paid phones. Interestingly enough, the capacity to send messages of short duration (around 160 characters) was only built into devices at this stage, and at first, wasn’t expected to take off at all.

By the 2000s, a revolution in the demand for data services brought about the age of the ‘third generation’ (3G) mobile phones, which used packet switching (as opposed to circuit switching) for data transmission.

The high connection speeds of 3G technology enabled a transformation in the industry: for the first time, media streaming of radio (and even television) content to 3G handsets became possible.” (Wikipedia, 2011).

The Sony Xperia Play, almost science fiction like

With the dawn of the age of 4G (fourth generation wireless) handsets, in which circuit switching has been eliminated, additional speed improvements in data transmissions have been achieved. As mobile phones begin to resemble miniature computers, offering every tool and feature imaginable, it is certainly exciting to see how the hand-held device that we hold dearest will develop further.

However, despite all improvements and additional features offered by today’s mobile phones, text messaging is still the most widely used data application in the world. Since the first SMS was transmitted in 1992, over the Vodafone GSM network, trillions more have been sent. Indeed, SMS has become such a massive global industry, that its value already topped $81 billion dollars in 2006, according to an ITU Internet Report.

It seems logical then, that in a world where communication is paramount, the importance of SMS cannot be overlooked. This could not be more applicable in the business environment, where the majority of one’s clients, customers, patients and employees can be reached easily and cost-effectively by means of SMS.

Like to know more? Well, luckily for you, SMS is our thing. Click here to contact us, or here to learn more about the benefits of integrating SMS into your business.

Hannah Moore is a freelance journalist based in Cape Town, South Africa.

The post The History of the Mobile Phone and SMS capability appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

In a world where celebrities have become the icon symbols for all things fashion related, it goes without saying that we want to know which mobile device they are carrying and using. A celebrity’s choice of mobile has more influence on eager consumers than the huge advertising screens found in Times Square; celebrities can sway thousands of people into specific mobile phone brands by just being photographed carrying a specific phone brand.

One can only imagine how important it is for celebrities to have the right phone in their hands because not only do they need to ensure the phone that they choose suits their image and is a reflection of their personality; but it also needs to be really efficient as they have the pressure of keeping up with important text messages, phone calls, twitter updates and email.

I think it’s reasonable to assume that if celebs have not been sponsored with a mobile phone brand then they definitely have enough money to choose whichever mobile device they desire (with no budget restraints involved), so what we want to know is what are they choosing???

Let’s have a look at the top mobile brands:

Blackberry: The 54-year-old talk show queen Oprah Winfrey was said to have named the BlackBerry phone one of her “favourite things” in 2003, and she still uses it even today. Desperate Housewives actress Eva Longoria is rarely spotted without her BlackBerry, she has even embossed her name into the phone’s leather black panel. Four of the world’s most-photographed young celebrities – Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Jessica Alba and Paris Hilton – are BlackBerry fans. Madonna is apparently also often photographed holding her Blackberry when leaving the gym.

I think by those several name drops, we can feel quite ‘cool’ when carrying a Blackberry around and if those celebs were not enough to convince you of a Blackberry then maybe this infamous individual will: the Queen of England. She was apparently given a Blackberry by Vodafone as a kind gesture.

iPhone: The iPhone has been seen in the hands of Lindsay Lohan, Victoria Bekham and Jessica Biel. An Apple spokesperson has mentioned to the press that Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, Ben Stiller and Matt Damon have all chosen the iPhone brand. Jennifer Hudson is also an iPhone devotee and this is clearly evident as she is filmed chatting on the iPhone in her music video ‘Spotlight’. Kelly Osbourne also carries the iPhone around; this sexy brand tops of her stylish look.

Palm: Angelina Jolie – Doubt you need much more convincing? She has been quoted saying that she prefers the Palm Pre software over the iPhone software.

LG: The LG brand seems to appeal to the strapping male stars like 50 Cents and P. Diddy, Ludacris and Nick Cannon. So if you want to sport a masculine flair, be sure to acquire an LG Touchscreen, Vu or Voyager.

At Panacea Mobile, you will find the star employees carrying around the following brands: Blackberry’s, HTC devices and Samsung Galaxy S’s. Aside from Panacea Mobile’s Blackberry users, it seems the other employees are not that influenced by the BIG STARS… We try set our own trends

Victoria Beckham

The Hilton Sisters

Eva Longoria

Angelina Jolie

The post Hollywood and their Mobile Brands appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

But what are the implications of the fact that most kids in developed countries now own their own cellphones, or are begging to own one at every given occasion? Well, we believe that there are two sides to this coin.

On the one hand, banning your child from access to cellphones means that you might be sabotaging their chance to interact with technology at an early age, when they are able to learn and absorb the most. Not good. Whether you are for or against it, being tech-savvy is a vital skill in the 21^st century, and for you to exclude your child from that revolution is to rule out a host of wonderful opportunities for them in the future. Indeed, those of us who are lucky enough to be digital natives, will remember that most of what we learned about the Internet and related technology, we learned at a young age. Those amongst us who are digital immigrants, however, know how painstaking it is having to catch up with the times at a later age.

In addition (and perhaps most importantly), the fact that your child can connect with you from anywhere, at anytime also means that they are safer with a mobile phone than they would be without one.

However, there are a number of real threats in allowing one’s young child unrestricted access to a mobile phone and all the functions it might include. ‘Sexting’ for example, has become a serious trend amongst tweens (pre-adolescents) and young teenagers alike, whereby sexually explicit text messages and/or photos are sent electronically between mobile phones. The rise of sexting amongst youngsters is a reality of which parents need to be aware since it can, in extreme cases, lead to sexual harassment, abuse or child pornography.

Cyber bullying is another danger, defined by the Australian Department of Education and Children’s Services as the use of e-technology as a means of victimising, controlling or humiliating another. A tragic act of cyber bullying in 2010 lead to the suicide of teenager Tyler Clementi, who took his own life after his roommate filmed him kissing another man and posted the footage on the Internet for viewing. Indeed, cyber bullying is a reality that can often be more destructive than face-to-face encounters, since information and photos can be sent between peers instantaneously, with the click of a button.

There is also the risk that your child over uses their mobile phone, insofar becoming what experts call ‘screen-obsessed’. A fascinating study by Internet security company, AVG showed that in developing countries, children as young as two to five years old have become more practiced in computer skills than they are at basic life skills. The results of AVG’s year-long study can serve as a warning to parents to prohibit their young ones from spending all their free time engaging with technology. Simply being a kid- riding a bike and playing outside, for example- is still essential to the healthy development of your child’s body and mind.

Sexting, cyber bullying and screen obsession are just some of the psychological risks of allowing children unlimited access to cellphones. Nevertheless, they are reason enough to highlight the urgency with which parents need to begin monitoring their children’s mobile phone usage. Whilst the answer doesn’t seem to lie in banning them from access altogether, there is a real need for proactive parenting in this regard.

As pointed out by child safety software company, Mobiflock:

Increasingly, children are living large and significant parts of their lives online, whether via computer or mobile phones, and parents need to understand what they are doing and encountering”.

So, make sure that you educate your child about both the opportunities and the threats of the digital world. And ensure your own peace of mind by installing the correct parent support software on their handsets to be able to keep a watchful eye over their calls, text messages and Internet use.

To sign up for a free trial with Mobiflock, one of the leading providers in child safety software, click here. Be proactive and make the digital world a safer place for your kids!

Hannah Moore is a freelance journalist based in Cape Town, South Africa.

Image Credit: www.parentdish.co.uk; www.mobiflock.com, www.google.co.za/imgres

The post Your Child and their Mobile Phone appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

It has been questioned whether the world’s digital networks will cope with their greatest online experiment yet.

The one saving grace is that with the different time zones around the world, it is possible that many of the USA’s viewers will watch the event when it has already taken place, giving the online realm a small break from that part of the world.

When looking back to the day when Prince Charles and Princess Di tied the knot, there was no such thing as live online streaming. Prince William and Princess Kate-to-be are taking their ceremony to a newly accessible networked level. It is quite laudable that “Will and Kate” are allowing so many people to share in their big day and it really does give a innovative modern edge to the British monarchy. One can only hope the internet is able to cope with the high surge of viewers.

Many phone networks in the UK have expanded their capacity into key London locations, to ensure the voice and data services can handle the extra input on the day.

If you are not so set on watching the ceremony online, but would still like to get involved, there are many Apps which have been designed especially for the Royal event. Some of these being:

•   Dress the Royals: For 59p, you can download this App and choose outfits for the Royals on their special day.
•   Weakest Link – Royal Wedding Edition: a Royal version of the popular television show ‘The Weakest Link’  has been designed to let you exercise some of your Royal knowledge and become King of the game for a day, for just 59p.
•   Royal Weddings: A slightly more expensive App, it costs £1.79, and it takes a look at the seven Royal Weddings from the past.
•  A Royal Wedding Celebration: William and Kate: Another 59p App which will allow you to brief yourself on how the couple met, who is attending the event and even more informative details such as the couples favourite colours. The App also allows you to check out the procession route, the dress designer and some famous quotes.

No matter whether you are male or female, I think almost every person has some sort of inner desire to see what is happening with the Royal couple. Well maybe not, but I certainly can’t wait for the online streaming to begin, and I just hope the digital networks will remain steady. Let’s wait and see…

The post The Internet and the Royal Wedding appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

Whilst it is true that there are many fantastic mobile applications out there, the app world has in recent years become enormously over-saturated and users are also faced with a host of shockingly useless apps. I would love, for example, to meet the creators of the following:

• The Pocket Girlfriend: A picture of a girl, which you can prompt to answer questions, such as “Am I an idiot?”.

• The ‘I am Rich’ app (which has, thankfully, been removed from Apple’s App Store): Costs $999.99 and does absolutely nothing, except display a red diamond-shaped icon in the corner of your screen- just in case you (or your friends) needed a reminder of the fact that, against all odds, you are rich.

• The DrinkBuddy: keeps track of your real-time drinking habits which you can then e-mail to your friends in summary form. Sound exciting? I should hope not.

On the 22^nd of January this year, the 10^th billion app was downloaded from Apple App Store. Yes, a couple of them were (like the ‘I am Rich’ app) embarrassingly pointless, but many more were highly sought-after, valuable apps. This begs the question: How do you navigate your way through the mobile app overload and where are the worthwhile apps to be found?

One of the best ways to ensure that you are downloading legitimate and worthwhile applications is by going through the official stores, instead of through online third parties. Examples of official sources include: Ovi Store, Android Market, Apple’s App Store and BlackBerry’s App World. Stores such as these will list their full repositories of available applications, categorised into groups such as ‘Social’, ‘Business’ and ‘Productivity’, in order to help you gain some oversight and more easily find what you are looking for.

Remember, however, to be selective in your choice of downloads- running too many applications on your mobile can slow it down unless you have a super fast processor. (If your handset is running on Android, you will be pleased to know that applications are automatically put to sleep when they aren’t used too often or when battery power is low).

Also keep in mind that not all of these nifty little gadgets are free to download- a fact which is easy to forget when you’re caught up in the frenzy. In addition, many of the apps for which you do have to pay are becoming increasingly expensive. In 2010, for example, the average price of a mobile application was approximately $2.85, a 43% price increase from 2009. By 2013, US revenues from smartphone apps are expected to increase to roughly $4.2 billion (Computerworld.com, 2009). (The other side of the argument, of course, is that future increased supply of mobile applications will put downward pressure on their price. But that is another discussion for another day).

So, in a nutshell: as enticing as it might sound to indulge in the mobile app overload, be sure to go to the right sources, download the right apps and be selective about your choices. And remember, before you run off to download the Pocket Girlfriend just for laughs, her loving doesn’t come free and she certainly isn’t prone to sharing either.

The post The Mobile App Overload appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

Something which hasn’t been done before at the SMWF is panel discussion formats, tweet up panels, on stage interviews, open ‘Q&A’ portions, audience sourcing debates and break-out group discussions; these will all be offered this year. The aim of these new workshops is to allow the audience to really interact and comprehensively explore the various social media platforms.

The event will be taking place in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, North America and Asia. The Africa event will be taking place in Cape Town South Africa at the Cape Town Convention Centre from the 1-2 June 2011. The Africa event will have a particular focus on mobile social media.

Day 1 – Social Media as part of an integrated approach to communication. Day 1 will be broken up into 3 focal sessions (Marketing Strategy, Social Reputation & PR, Customer Service & Support).

Day 2 – Social media tools, strategies and innovations. Digs deeper into specific tools, strategies and innovations that are being used by brands in social media. Day 2 will consist of 5 focal sessions (Brand Management, Community Building & Management, Social Shopping & Location Based Marketing, B2B Marketing, Social Media for Social Good).

Visitors can mix and match the events as they desire. Attendees will be encouraged to network and engage with other attendees at the designated bar area. The exhibition is free of charge however the workshops can be prebooked at a cost.

Mobile Connectivity in Africa is growing at an astonishing rate; in some poverty stricken African countries the sound of message beeps and ringtones are as common as food handouts.

‘According to the analytics company Socialbakers, Facebook use is growing more rapidly in Africa than in any other region of the world, with 50% of users coming online in the last six months; Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa are the countries with the fastest adoption’.

With this kind of awareness and enthusiasm, companies are going to be able to do amazing things to educate, aid and support this huge mobile population. In terms of business strategies, with such a huge population available as a target audience, companies need to ensure they are on top form in terms of their social media and marketing strategies.

The Panacea Mobile Social Media and Online Marketing team will definitely be at the event. We hope to network and engage with other savvy marketers and gain as much knowledge and advice as we can. It will be interesting to hear the ideas and opinions from the International Social Media players.

The post The Social Media World Forum (SMWF) appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

This massive growth in smartphone sales has resulted in aggressive industry competition, both in terms of handsets sold and in terms of which smartphone operating systems (such as Nokia’s Symbian and Google’s Android) are installed.

(Quickly, some definitional matters: For simplicity’s sake, an operating system (also known as a ‘Mobile OS’ or ‘mobile platform’) can be explained as the system that manages the hardware and software resources of your phone. Think of it as similar (in principle) to the operating system of your PC or laptop, which might be Windows, Linux or Mac.)

Due to the competitive nature of the industry, consumers are able to chose from a wide range of both operating systems and handsets. Upon investigation, the battle seems to be fiercest amongst the following brands:

According to a 2011 study by Gartner, the Symbian operating system has (relatively speaking) the largest market share worldwide. This matches the success of its chief shareholder and customer, Nokia (Wikipedia, 2011). Indeed, Nokia are still the primary producers of handsets, having shipped a total of 110.4 million units in 2010 (Q3), of which 26.5 million were smartphones (ITCandor, 2010).

Placed within a historical context, however, things don’t look as peachy for Nokia’s Symbian OS. Indeed, whilst the worldwide Symbian OS market share was 63.5% in 2007, it was only 36.6% by the end of 2010 (Gartner, 2011), meaning that whilst Symbian is currently still the dominant OS in relative terms, it is rapidly losing its grip on first position.

Indeed, Symbian’s revenues are being overtaken by other OS giants, one of which is the iPhone OS (Apple). According to further studies carried out by Gartner, the iOS market share increased from 2.7% in 2007 (the year of the release of the Apple iPhone) to 15.7% in 2010. Although this growth is not monumental, it is significant because of the fact that the market share for both Symbian and Microsoft declined over that period.

These trends are reflected in the market for mobile phone handsets as well: Between 2009 and 2010, Apple’s share of the worldwide handset market increased from 1.5% to 2.7%- not a massive leap, but nevertheless worth the heads-up when many other market shares are declining.

Other big players in the OS market include RIM (Research in Motion), the manufacturers of the BlackBerry business phone. According to Gartner (2011), RIM gained overall market share between 2007 and 2010, although its share declined between 2009 and 2010. On a related note, the sale of BlackBerry handsets is lagging as well. Despite these recent setbacks, however, Jim Balsillie (company CEO) spoke confidently of RIM’s future at the World Mobile Congress earlier this year and has promised that 2011 will be a news-worthy year for the brand.

The Windows Microsoft OS market presence has similarly declined in recent years, its share dropping from 12% in 2007 to 4.2% in 2010 (Gartner, 2011). Indeed, the Microsoft OS has been widely criticized for being mal-suited to touch screens and for its un-user-friendliness. As a result, Microsoft decided to phase out its Windows Microsoft OS and to focus rather on its new platform, the Windows Phone, which was unveiled on the 15^th of February last year.

An analysis of smartphone handsets and operating systems isn’t complete without the mention of Google’s Android OS. Since the release of HTC’s three most popular handsets (Dream, Hero and Magic), there has been a sudden increase in the number of devices that run on Android. Indeed, the Android OS market share has experienced the largest recent growth by far, with a worldwide increase of over 850% between the second quarter of 2009 and that of 2010.

Although predictions of this nature can never be 100% accurate, Gartner has said that Android is likely to continue its growth in the worldwide smartphone market. BlackBerry is predicted to continue its decline; the iPhone OS is said to lose momentum as well; and Windows is likely to bounce back into action. Although the Symbian market share is declining, one might argue that it could increase in developing countries, such as Indonesia and South Africa, where market shares have been less volatile.

One thing remains certain, however: Competition for the smartphone market share will remain strong, and it is the consumer, largely speaking, who stands to benefit from that. Indeed, there can be no doubt that the quality of smartphone handsets and the usability of their operating systems is only set to increase in coming years. Watch this space and keep checking back for more news on the  revolution that is being fueled by the smartphone market war.

Image Credit: lewisclarkboone.com

The post Competition is fierce for Smartphone Market Share appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

These statistics place the SMS marketing revolution in a more understandable light. With such exponential growth in mobile users, why wouldn’t businesses worldwide be eager to use SMS as a gateway with which to communicate with people? Nevertheless, numbers alone don’t tell the whole story, which is why we’ve decided to provide you with a deeper understanding of the issue, by revealing ten of the most pertinent underlying reasons as to why businesses choose to ‘go mobile’.

1.      SMS marketing cuts through other media ‘noise’ by speaking directly to the consumer in a highly social and personalised way. Whilst this does mean that mobile advertisers are expected to respect the privacy of consumers, it also means that the individual’s attention is likely to be focused on your message for a specific amount of time and that they will almost certainly engage with the information being transmitted. Statistics in this regard are promising, showing that 98% of messages received are opened (Frost & Sullivan, 2010).

2.      The use of bulk SMS in business is highly flexible since it can be applied to virtually all aspects of interaction with your customer: sales, marketing or customer services. Moreover, SMS is not only limited to being used as a marketing tool, but can also be used as a cost-effective means of communication between employers and employees, for example. Indeed, bulk SMS is revolutionising the way that people communicate with each other in a variety of industries, including agriculture, education and health, to name a few of the most exciting examples.

3.      SMS has become one of the furthest-reaching communication gateways around, reaching up to 70% of the world’s population, as opposed to television advertisements and online ads (which are only communicated to a maximum of 30% of the world’s population, according to Internetworldstats.com). Moreover, mobile marketing campaigns are not restricted geographically, but can reach segments of the mobile population anywhere in the world.

4.      Another one of the key features that set the mobile phone apart from its competitors is that its activity can be easily tracked. As such, mobile marketing campaign statistics can be captured, aggregated and segmented, meaning that advertisers are aware of exactly which promotions work, and which not. Indeed, advertising by means of SMS offers a unique learning opportunity for companies, in terms of which products or messages are being received in the most profitable way, allowing them to increase their ROI accordingly.

5.      Although the numbers are increasing, the mobile marketing industry remains relatively unsaturated. As a result of this unique feature, your customer is still likely to take notice when receiving an SMS message from you, setting your advertisement apart from the thousands of other marketing messages your customer receives each day.

6.      Advertising by means of SMS is interactive, and so a mutually beneficial dialogue can ensue between you and the individual with whom you are communicating. This is invaluable, because it is a feature that is unlikable to most other marketing techniques.

7.      Campaigns are specifically targeted according to age, gender, LSM, etc. They can also be informed by your customer record, meaning that you can work on building a relationship with each individual client.

8.      Mobile marketing is known to integrate well with other media such as television, radio, e-mail and the Internet.

9.      Bulk SMS messages are sent quickly and effortlessly. Indeed, whereas you would wait for weeks or months for the effect of traditional media on your consumer to take place, the effect with SMS is instantaneous.

10.  And finally, SMS marketing is arguably the most cost-effective way to enhance the relationship that you have with your customers. SMS gateway providers like Panacea Mobile will charge you on a per-message basis, which they can afford to keep low because of their top of the range technical infrastructure.

Panacea Mobile is an industry leader and offers its clients all of the above benefits and more, which you can begin enjoying by signing up with them for free. Go ahead. We have a feeling it might change the way that you communicate with your customers for ever.

The post 10 Reasons to mobilize your Business appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

The intention for an event as such is to encourage the  international and regional decision makers in the Apps community to consider and deliberate the hot topics for the upcoming year. The event will incorporate a thorough look at  Models, Strategies, Technologies, Development and Marketing of Mobile Money.

The Cape Town event will look at Africa specifically. Africa has a population of just over one billion, however with the serious problems in infrastructure – the health, agriculture and banking industries are suffering severely. Apps are being presented as one of the solutions.

“From mobile banking, SMS chatting to stock market updates and sharing photos through mobile phones, the catalogue of mobile applications in Africa seems to be growing by the day. Thanks to the mobile phone penetration which has heavily outstripped PC penetration, availability of affordable bandwidth and the demand to do more than voice and text on the mobile phone.” African e-Development Resource Centre

‘The potential of apps to change the landscape of Africa is boundless. Increased literacy, widespread access to healthcare, farming and agricultural aids and more is being facilitated by mobile apps’.

Will mobile application be able to assist in the development of the globe’s second largest continent? The Apps World Event will explore whether this is possible, whether APP’s are the answer for healthcare, farming and agriculture solutions in Africa.

If you are interested in the mobile apps industry, be sure to attend this captivating event taking place at the Cape Town Convention Centre from the 1-2 June 2011. Not only will you have the opportunity to network and discover all things App related through the exhibition, but there will be a whole series of shows covering building for the various app stores, app testing, key developer challenges, marketing apps, brand app case studies, business models, pricing models, design & build challenges, app ecosystem, operator strategies, and much more.

The post Apps World Event – Cape Town Convention Centre appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

I would think, the best way to deliver important messages effectively, would be to  ensure the messages go to the one type of media source that an individual carries around with them all the time, being a mobile phone. This way, an individual can access the message at any point, so regardless of whether the information is retained, the individual can view it at any time; it is also very effective as  it ensures messages are within the 160ch limit, which guarantees messages are straight to the point.

Let’s have a more thorough look at the types of SMS applications which your business could utilize:

1 ) Launches: The bulk SMS system could assist with informing clients of opening day launches as well as new products or services.
2 ) Promotions: Companies could use the bulk SMS service to promote discounts, new products or great deals.
3 ) Notifications: Companies could make use of the system to notify their clients of important regulatory changes, changes to company particulars and  broadcasting of valuable information. They could also use the system to update clients with payment reminders.
4 ) Alerts: The bulk SMS system could assist with informing individuals of crucial alerts, such as earthquake or tsunami warnings, vital health information notifications, as well as more general information such as petrol increases or interest rate changes.
5 ) Invites: Companies could use the service to invite employees and clientele to work functions and hosted events, whether it be conferences, exhibitions, guest speakers or cocktail evenings.
6 ) Competitions: Companies could use the service to run competitions as an advertising medium.
7 ) Season’s Greetings: The bulk SMS service could be used to send birthday messages or Christmas wishes to clientele; this would work effectively as a customer relationship management tactic.
8 ) Confirmations: Companies could use the service to confirm payments, deliveries and collections.
9 ) Updates: The bulk SMS service could be used to inform clientele of progress updates, event updates or information updates.
10 ) Coupons: Companies could use the service to issue coupons or credits.

It is clear that by sending an SMS, the individual can access their information at any time and they will always see the message straight away. Personally, I can relate to this as the other day I got an SMS with a flight delay update; thankfully it was in SMS form and I saw it straight away on my mobile so I managed to change to another flight and get to my destination in good time. Every kind of business should be able to relate to one of the ‘uses’ above. Bulk SMS gateway companies can assist with this, Panacea Mobile being one of the best.

The post 10 ways to apply Bulk SMS to your Business appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

Of course this is leaving Airtel, Vodacom & MTN red in the face as they scrabble to control the broadband market & they’re not too thrilled with the increased competition that will find mobile operators demanding lower prices. Once the WACS (West Africa Cable System) becomes operational later this year, they’ll probably be apoplectic but it won’t take long before new broadband projects pop up everywhere; already Airtel & MTN are launching cheaper broadband.

MTN, it seems, is most active in Africa and have invested quite substantially in undersea cables and the good thing for the consumer is that, like women at a season’s end sale, they’re deadly serious about what they’re doing and they won’t let anything stand in their way. Since, at this point, I’m talking about Africa as a whole, I’ll put the discussion on 3G & smart phones aside for a while and concentrate on SMS because it’s still the most effective way to reach your clients quickly & ensure that they get your message and remember it; now that bulk SMS is being handled so effectively by SMS gateways, you’d be foolish not to consider the option for your company. Google has announced that  their Gmail SMS service will now be available in Malawi, Tanzania & Uganda as well, which means that SMS is going to become even more important for business communication (whilst chatting is free, consumers are charged normal SMS rates for everything else). Their system is working spiffingly & has been tested in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and Zambia with great success. Just for the record, they’ll be working with Uganda Telecom & Orange in Uganda, Vodacom in Tanzania and Airtel & TNM in Malawi.

I’m particularly enthusiastic about SMS & customer relationship management for Africa because I happen to like being informed via SMS since I seldom pay attention to phone calls unless they’re personal; like many consumers, I forget numbers, the phone call or what the call was about in the first place because I’m either too busy or too distracted. I like my like Travel Agent to confirm my bookings by SMS, my Airline to confirm all my travel codes by SMS  (it’s all there on the phone & I don’t have to grapple for diaries or bits of paper) and I particularly like my bank to tell me when payments are being made. If it weren’t for SMS, I wouldn’t ever hear of special offers, I’d forget my doctor’s appointments, I wouldn’t have found out that my insurance broker had done absolutely nothing about bringing down my insurance payments and by the end of my work day, I won’t remember what’s ready for collection or what isn’t.  For the few of you that get your knickers into a knot about getting an SMS that you say you didn’t want, delete the thing & make sure you’re on the DNS list – what’s with tantrum already? Just be aware that you’ll miss out on a lot of cool stuff!

I’m convinced that SMS is as effective as a marketing tool here as it is in the rest of Africa (probably much more so north of our borders where you’ll have a wee problem with the delivery of snail mail and magazines with your double latte). I love having all my information on one gadget, I love that I can sit down after work and go through the stuff I need on my phone & discard the stuff I don’t need and, most of all, I love that there’s so much less paper in my post box. Since smartphone penetration in Africa will still take more than just some time (in South Africa those that know believe that it will  only reach 80% by 2014) , SMS will be not only viable but an extremely important marketing tool.

The post To Text or Not to Text: That is the Question appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

The practice of Direct Marketing was first discovered by mail order pioneer, Aaron Montgomery Ward, who realised that by selling directly to consumers at a low price (i.e. by removing the middle man), he could revolutionise the advertising industry. Although the term ‘Direct Marketing’ was coined only long after his death, and the benefits of his technique were only fully realised much later, Ward is still accredited as the inventor of this specific advertising style.

Direct Marketing uses a variety of media, including for example, direct mail, e-mail and telemarketing. One of the most cost- and time-effective channels of Direct Marketing, however, is in the use of SMS Marketing. SMS Marketing is the process of sending targeted special offers and announcements to your list of mobile subscribers (be they employees, consumers or patients) via means of a text message. Bulk SMS advertising has been heralded as one of the most effective Direct Marketing medium for numerous reasons:

Firstly, the ease with which your customers can respond to the SMS creates an interactive communication gateway. This allows for you to get to know your clients better and to track the success of your marketing or promotional campaign. Moreover, it has been proven that individuals are much more likely to read the SMS’ that they receive within a short amount of time, meaning that your message gets across quickly, without you having to wait for days for the effect to take place. This is especially interesting when compared with e-mail read rates, which have dropped to as low as 15% due to the massive volume of e-mail spam that is being sent out.

The portable and inherently personal nature of mobile phones also plays an important role in this regard. For example, whereas consumers have to remember to cut out their direct mail promotional offers and to keep them on them, an SMS is always readily available since most people carry their mobile phones with them wherever they go.  Indeed, this is one of the main reasons as to why direct mail, newspaper coupons and telemarketing methods are not nearly as powerful as SMS Direct Marketing.

Cape Town based Panacea Mobile is one of the industry leaders in the SMS Marketing business. Indeed, they cover 819 mobile networks in 211 countries worldwide, and are able to offer detailed tracking and reporting of each message that they send out, thus providing their clients with meaningful information on response/success rates. Moreover, Panacea Mobile offers expert campaign management solutions at competitive rates and a support team that adheres to a 12-hour maximum response time, qualifying them as one of the most competitive Providers around.

Because the Panacea Team believes so strongly in the benefits of SMS as a Direct Marketing tool and in their product specifically, signing up with them is free. So why not give it a go and try it out? You have nothing to lose and all of the benefits of SMS Marketing to gain.

The post SMS as a Direct Marketing Tool appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

Whatever happened to proper pronunciation and spelling? Gone are the days in which beautifully hand written letters and eloquent language are the manner in which messages are sent. SMS language (also known as Textese) is a term which has been developed to describe the abbreviations and slang most commonly used due to the restricted amount of characters in mobile phone text messaging (SMS).

As a person who has grown up being moderately exposed to the technology era, I can relate to SMS slang and this new cultural revolution which  abbreviates words into letters and numbers; however as I have grown up over the years (and as I have a personal adoration for beautiful writing papers and soft spoken English), I have come to realise that the SMS language is undoubtedly wrecking the traditional English language. I find myself writing emails to clients and having to keep backspacing as I replace ‘you’ with ‘u’ and ‘are’ with ’r’. It has become almost ingrained in the way I write and it is rather annoying. With teens acquiring mobile phones at a much earlier age compared to my generation, they are learning how to use SMS slang much sooner than I did, and it is really hard to believe that this second language called Textese is not affecting their school essays and assignments.

But enough of me complaining and being a boring old grown up, let’s have a look at the art of writing the SMS language. There are no standard rules, pretty much anything goes, whether you shorten a word by making use of numbers (eg: later = l8er or tomorrow = 2mro), whether you just use the first letter of the words in sequence (by the way = BTW) or whether you make symbols for words (love = <3 , the symbol represents a heart), it is all acceptable. Use should be aiming to use the fewest number of letters possible. The SMS language is usually used as individuals try keep their messages in the 160ch limit, however the origin of texting clearly came from a desire to type less, and to communicate more quickly (also known as LAZINESS).

So if you do get a text message in times to come (whether it be from your daughter, grandson, pupil, classmate or girlfriend) and the message seems to be in a foreign language, DON’T PANIC because there are many websites out there which provide long lists with 1000’s of abbreviations for you to use in order to translate your SMS.

The post The Art of Writing in SMS Language appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

• Out of 4 billion mobile subscribers at the end of 2010, 3.1 billion were unique phone owners whilst the other 900 million were second and even third subscriptions.
• The installed base of mobile phones in use is 3,4 billion so 600 million subscriptions are only SIM card pre-paid subscriptions (owner has one phone & swaps between 2 or 3 networks by inserting the appropriate SIM card).
• The penetration rate in Europe today is at 115%, in USA it’s past 90% and in Italy, Hong Kong, Israel, Portugal and Singapore it’s past 130% and growing briskly.
• For me the most interesting stat of all is the one for the developing countries:
  • Ukraine is at 140%
  • Russia is past 130%
  • Chile has passed 120%
  • Colombia is at 110%
  • South Africa, Malaysia and Argentina are at 100% and growing strong!

It seems to me that the rest of Africa will soon reach 100% and I believe her countries will pass the mark at dizzying speed for reasons I’ve already given in previous posts but, more specifically, because landlines are just horrible, communication is essential and businesses are increasingly faced with SMS as the only option for communication, advertising & marketing. Like it or not, pretty magazines & newspapers are just not going to do the job. Since Africa’s growing at breakneck speed (despite all her setbacks), she’s going to become one of the biggest economic opportunities of our lifetime and already the wise & astute are there. No, of course the iPhone & smartphones won’t be part of that because there aren’t too many contract accounts and most of the users will make use of pre-paid accounts (making the designer phones out of reach of the masses) but they will become part of the digital online crowd and they will be using cheaper phones and SMS will be the way to get in touch with them.Twitter & Facebook won’t be effective because one needs to spend some time on those sites for marketing to work and in the African situation that won’t be the case – not only because phone sharing won’t allow it. That’s just how it is. Now that I think about it, there may even be a market for second hand phones and Nokia is big in Africa with Blackberry for the wealthier and then, of course, I’m waiting to see seriously cheap phones that have decent batteries because electricity, when it’s available, is super expensive. I also believe the solar powered battery charger is going to do well on the African continent as will cheap waterproof or dustproof phones that can fall off camels & ancient bikes or onto rocks, withstand tropical storms & thick mud and can be banged about a bit. They would, also, have to be sturdy since phones are often shared and if I were a designer, I’d look at making SIM card removal easy and creating a phone with multiple personalities, passwords and memories.

The post Multi Mobile appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

The second annual Thinking Mobile Conference, themed ‘Relevant, Valuable and on Time’ is sponsored by SABC Mobile and is set to take place at the Industrial Development Corporation in Johannesburg from the 14^th to the 16^th of April this year.

The Conference is aimed at providing people with knowledge around how to, in a practical way, apply mobile marketing techniques to their business entities or non-profit organisations. Companies already making use of mobile marketing will be able to fine tune this component of their marketing strategies; whilst those that aren’t yet accustomed to ‘thinking mobile’ will find answers to questions such as “How and where can I start integrating the use of mobile marketing into my advertising strategy?”, or “What is the value of mobile marketing in today’s competitive environment?”.

The event has been expanded to run over two days and will include plenary sessions and practical workshops, as well as panel discussions hosted by distinguished industry representatives such as editor of Stuff magazine, Toby Shapshak (whose talk is titled ‘How Powerful is Mobile Really? The confusion around user statistics and whom we should believe’). There will also be an exhibition which is open to the 200+ marketing delegates of the Conference, as well as to the public. By allowing public access to the exhibition, the aim will be to provide consumers with a chance to experience the various benefits of mobile marketing in a fun and entertaining way.

Some of the specific topics that will be covered in workshops and in panel discussions include the following:

• Mobile and the legal implications (The POPI Bill)
• Mobile Commerce
• Mobile Technology (current & future)
• Cell C - Nike Football Project (case study)
• Personalized Priority Messaging
• Targeted Relationship Building with Mobile (customers, business partners & staff)
• Turning Mobile Mechanics into Mobile Marketing
• Building Interactive Mobile Communities
• Integrating Mobile in an Overall Marketing Strategy
• Mobile in Media (television, radio & print)
• Mobile in Health & Beauty (including Insurance)
  
• Mobile in Hospitality & Tourism
• Mobile in Retail & FMCG
• Mobile in Sport & Leisure

The event is open to any individual or organisation that seeks empowerment in the mobile industry. Tickets are normally R4999.00 per person and include access to the plenary sessions, the exhibition, the workshops, panel discussions, lunch on each day and a cocktail get-together on the first evening. However, early bird tickets are still available until the 31^st of March for R4500 per person, all inclusive. Group booking discounts also apply. For more information on how to book or get involved, visit http://thinking-mobile.com. You can, of course, also SMS ‘Mobi’ to 31771. Standard rates apply; free SMS’ don’t (although you probably know that by now).

The post Thinking Mobile Conference 14-16 April, 2011 appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

Some other interesting facts which have been observed among mobile phone stats are 86% of mobile internet users are using their phones while watching T.V. (who would have thought an individual could actually be distracted from T.V.); 91% of mobile internet usage is to socialize whether it be over Facebook, Twitter or Youtube (Over 1/3 of Facebook’s 600 million (and growing) user base is making use of Facebook mobile) (50% of Twitters 165 million users make use of Twitter mobile) (200 million You Tube views occur on mobile devices per day); and our last stat for now must go to WOMAN POWER with woman aged 35 – 54 being the most active group in mobile socialization.

With the knowledge that there are 4 billion mobile phone users around at the moment who are carrying their phones around almost all the time, one can conclude that mobile phones are a marketers dream. Especially for companies looking to use the SMS aspect of the device, since 3.05 billion users only have SMS capability on their phone. Companies and marketing specialists should really take a more thorough look into benefits of using Bulk SMS gateway companies to get their product or message out there.

The post The Mobile Market – Some Interesting Stats appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

I can only put this down to our own refusal to demand good service or good quality; you give what you get and you get what you choose. It’s common cause that labour in South Africa is too expensive because productivity is laughable yet unions consistently demand increased wages for all, especially themselves and in so doing drive up the cost of production even more. A vicious circle, I’d say; but who’s at fault here? The mobile technology business isn’t labourer intensive in South Africa (since it would be far too expensive to build them here) but it’s system intensive and it takes significant financial input, very expensive technological know-how and hours & months of back-breaking work to design apps and systems that are worthy of re-sale to the end consumer & then it doesn’t end there. IT being what it is, it takes constant monitoring to provide back up service on a 24/7 basis and it’s the kind of service that requires very expensive, well qualified employees or (more often than not) the owners of the company who developed the technology in the first place.

I’m going to leave Vodacom, Telkom, MTN and the boys out of this discussion because they do precious little except monopolize the market and do everything in their power to destroy competition. Today I’m venting about systems, apps and all the bits and bobs that make the mobile world one of the most dynamic and fastest growing industries, especially in Africa.

To continue: it never ceases to amaze me that so many managers working for top end companies have the same set of criteria for technology partners as they would have for their auditors or their bankers. It boggles the mind! The last thing on earth I want to see when I’m looking for an IT company is is a bunch of older guys and, similarly, when I’m looking for auditors or bankers, I really don’t want to see the kids. Surely it makes sense, then, that the age of the company doesn’t mean anything but the technology and the qualifications & experience of the players certainly does; then, if you want to know whether they’re financially sound, ask their bankers.

Now let’s get to the matter of price: of course price is very important and I’d be the first to keep an eye on that but let’s get our priorities straight here. Companies don’t seem to balk when they have to spend on hardware so why, in the name of all that is that is logical, do they insist on using hit-one-miss-one companies who deliver super cheap products with absolutely no decent back up, shoddy systems and dismal performance records? Surely the age of the company is irrelevant but the technology and the ability to deliver said technology is? Why not investigate companies or ask for some kind of product comparison rather than how long the company’s been in business (often having delivered shoddy products for years or, because of the economic downswing, taking a chance & now delivering shoddy products)? I may be off kilter here but I want a good product, good service and excellent back up and I don’t give a hoot who delivers it or how old he/she is. Hell, if they’re young & cute so much the better.

So what’s to be done? I’m not so sure but maybe some criteria should be put in place for selling a product or starting a business; after all, we don’t allow unqualified people to become doctors. South Africa and, for that matter, the African continent, is hemorrhaging skilled people because we leave them no alternative when we accept the cheap & the nasty. There’s no difference between the fly-by-night mobile operator and the man who accepts dumped Chinese goods: they both do the same damage & they’re both equally despicable.

The post Dump Dumped Dumping appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

I recently started my own business in the (wait for it) mobile industry. It’s been a super interesting ride and we hit the ground running with a few key clients and a super stable back-end to top it off. This meant that we had little to worry and as a result, money flowed in.

However, since then certain legislative changes and key marketing trends have caused a slight drop-off in a specific type of clientele (which, in my opinion is for the better).

Since then, we had to wake up as a company and refocus ourselves on what it is we want to be and in doing so it became abundantly clear what were facing in the “real business world”, not the vanilla-scented, rosy-cheeked princess I had become used to. For a lack of better words, sh*t became real.

And what it is that we were facing was that the competition is strong, like bull. And fierce, like JuJu. The fact of the matter is that companies in this industry have gone from niche to terrible in a space of 12 months. Which is great if you persevere. However, perseverance in business costs quite a bit of money, which is fine because it grows on trees but should there be no rain (like Summer in Cape Town), things become tricky.

Now as an entrepreneur and business owner, I am all too aware that the key priority is to make a profit, however, in parallel to this priority is the desire to “make the world a better place” – Michael Jackson (RIP).

Promises

This holds true in my case as well; there are few things that annoy me quite as much as small, medium, big, enormous, colossal and stupid businesses being ripped apart, not only financially but also qualitatively by the fly by night opportunists of the business world. These are the guys and girls that offer you a service which comes across being the same as any other, but believe me they are not.

Promises are made (and broken) and efficiency is degraded. Yet, this does not bother their client, because, in most cases the client does not know any better. They see the bottom line and that is where it ends.

I have massive appreciation for the bottom line, but I have more appreciation for systems and services that work and that are in effect positively enriching its users. I believe that by eliminating the bad seeds South Africa stands a much better chance of building better businesses, stronger marketing campaigns, and more value to the end-user and more good in general.

It’s a shame that there are so many young, smart and legitimate start-up businesses out there that are failing, daily, because of the ignorance and bottom line driven managers. Quality should be key in making decisions, obviously taking into consideration monetary factors (There is no decent company that won’t bend on price).

New approach

Senior level managers need to instil a new approach to handing out tenders and signing up new technology vendors. Importantly the approach need not only take into consideration the bottom line and the age of the business. Senior managers should be looking for younger partners; they should not be looking at the age of a company (I am aware that businesses fold and that it’s a key factor, but new technology is generally better than old technology).

Although, this is unlikely to happen soon, and whether or not it does makes no difference to most of us but if we want South Africa to reach new heights, we need to embrace the new, the better and the faster technology that we have available to us nowadays. We need to ensure that our businesses are streamlined and that vendor outages and system failures don’t diminish our ability to ensure the number one business priority, profits. Profit is cool (read, Big Pimpin), but so is staying afloat and profits don’t come to those that don’t float.

Hope for the best

In turn, though, I believe that start-up businesses should also stop offering shoddy technology to its clients. Not only does it mess up opportunities for me, but it also messes up the possible opportunities for other quality technology providers. I have no idea how yet but a system to filter out the filth and keep the good needs to be invented. Perhaps we need to look at screening business owners in IT before allowing them to even register the business, or is that the same as saying that only secondary educated citizens may vote…. Who knows, but something has to give.

For the time being though, stick your finger in as many pies as possible and hope for the best. Oh, and smile.

Follow Stefano on twitter

Article first appeared on News24

The post Red-Eye cheap seats, for business. appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

“[t]he Internet has revolutionized the banking sector by offering customers additional functionality, 24-hour access to their money, as well as time- and cost-savings.”

Although internet banking is beginning to represent a significant share of the banking market in South Africa (as the digital divide shrinks and more people gain access to online facilities), security concerns are still prevalent amongst many users- especially those that may be using online banking for the first time.

South African banking organisations are largely aware of this, however, and most of them know that protection through single password authentication is not considered secure enough for personal online banking purposes. Indeed, the South African banking sector is one of the most advanced in terms of online banking security infrastructure, since most online banking in the country is done via Two-factor Authentication (2FA).

In a nutshell, 2FA is the use of two independent means of authentication to assert the user’s identity. To do this, banks employ the Personal Identification Number/Transaction Authentication Number (PIN/TAN) method, whereby the PIN is used for the initial login and the TAN to authenticate transactions thereafter. TAN’s are only valid for a short amount of time and can be distributed to the customer in various ways. One of the most trusted ways to do so, however, is to send the unique number to the user’s mobile phone via SMS. The SMS will then contain both the TAN, as well as the transaction details (such as the amount, account numbers, etc.). Once the user has passed both layers of authentication, he or she can perform the transaction. 2FA is therefore a powerful tool, and has been instrumental in radically reducing the security concerns held by online banking users.

The use of SMS in banking is not only beneficial for online banking security purposes, though. Indeed, the online banking users can also receive SMS alerts allowing them to proactively manage their account wherever they are: They can request, for example, to be notified of any suspicious activity; to receive notifications of when a deposit has been made, a stop-order processed or a withdrawal has occurred (to name a few notification examples). Alerts like these save the consumer the hassle of going into the bank to illicit similar information and also allow them to rest assured in the fact that only they have control over their finances.

Bulk SMS providers play an important role in this regard, since they facilitate the sending and receiving of messages between consumers and the bank. This is due to the fact that providers, such as Panacea Mobile, can send personalised messages to customers without time-delays and at an impressively low rate. Moreover, detailed reporting on all messages that are sent out  allows banks an additional means with which to ensure that each and every message is accounted for.

If you are in the South African banking sector make sure that you understand the security- and cost-benefits of SMS alerts and one-time-pins; and importantly too, that you sign up with a provider that can offer you a gateway to these benefits in a safe, affordable way. Indeed, the extent to which you, as a bank, are able to effectively integrate SMS into your communication and security strategies is going to have a significant impact on whether you are left behind in the new age of banking, or not.

Click here to sign up with Panacea Mobile for free and to learn more about the benefits of SMS for the banking industry.

*A note to the online banking user: Please make sure that you are exactly aware of the types of SMS’ that your bank sends out, and what, if any, information they might request from you. (Your bank will never request your credit card details, your PIN or your password from you, whether over the phone, via e-mail or by SMS). Always think carefully about the information you give out- SMS Phishing is an unfortunate reality; however, it can be avoided.

The post SMS and Banking in South Africa appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

Following Japan’s devastating 8.9 quake and monster tsunami, full effects have still not been revealed. The level of devastation is on an epic scale with many towns completely obliterated and their residents nowhere to be seen. Officials say the final death toll could be in the tens of thousands, while hundreds are missing and the damage to infrastructure and nature is colossal. The country also continues to suffer severe aftershocks, with two magnitude 6 quakes hitting a few days after the initial disaster. Residents are also petrified as reports stream in of possible radiation leaks from the Fukushima nuclear plant.

‘When disaster strikes around the world, Save the Children is there to save lives with food, medical care and education and remains to help communities rebuild through long-term recovery programs’. ‘Save the Children is mobilizing its global resources to respond to the needs of children and families affected by the earthquake and its aftermath, and an international emergency team has been dispatched to assist staff in Japan’.

Save the Children (2011)

Join in ‘Save the Children’ efforts in expanding their disaster relief fund for the people of Japan in conjunction with Panacea Mobile by SMSing the word JAPAN to 38083 and donating *R10 to the ‘Save the Children’ fund.

*Standard network premium rates will apply; applies to South Africa only.

The post Please HELP us to HELP Japan appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

So in order to deal with data and file handling in particular it’s a good idea to create a component of some sort that can deal with files and return them in exactly the file format you want. Discarding any files that are not pertinent. This is going to make it easier for the user as he/she/mechanical construct does not need to meticulously check his/her uploads. We are going to extract CSV files as this is the simplest file type to deal with.
For this we are going to need a component to handle the file inputs that ‘less than perfect users’ would be supplying to us.

Some info: CSV stands for Clerics of Saint Viator , but it also stands for Comma Seperated Values which I guess is a bit more applicable. I guess converting files to Clerics of Saint Viator would be quite funny, but not practical for development purposes.
So lets spec it out a bit:

Our objectives:

• To create a generic set of features that can deal with data handling.
• A system that can handle multiple file types.
• A system that deals with garbage collection adequately and provides various options for dealing with it.
• A system that is easily extensible and reusable.

What setup do we need:

1. A unix based system, sorry windows lovers, but windows is for gaming. We can jam a game of wow together anytime, but its just not useful enough as a web hosting platform.
2. A working install of php, apache and cakephp. Yes you can do it without cakephp but the code base will have to be modified to allow for this!
3. The following linux packages: Unzip, zip, perl_xls, unrar (see appendix A to find out how to get these up and running)

USAGE

//Download and install the component as you would usually install any component.
var $components = array('SpreadsheetExtractor');
//create your new function to test it out!
$files = array("valid_file.csv","zip_file_with_csvs.zip","rar_file_with_csvs.rar","invalid_file.jpeg");
$this->SpreadsheetExtractor->keepOriginalFiles = False;
$return_file = $this->SpreadsheetExtractor->extractCSVS($files);

Well there you go, now there will be no more: Sorry the files you uploaded were of an invalid format or that sort of thing.
Please see my article on CSV reformatting which is coming soon. This article will deal with reformatting user submitted CSV files to suit your needs.

class SpreadsheetExtractorComponent{
	var $returnMethod = 'zip';
	var $garbage = array();
	var $processableTypes = array('application/vnd.ms-excel','text/csv');
	var $errors = array();
	var $baseDirectory = WWW_ROOT;
	var $subDirectory = 'files/';
	var $keepOriginalFiles = True;
	var $originalFiles = array();

function getMimeType($file){
		$mimetype_workaround= array(
		'csv'=>'text/csv', 'xls'=>'application/vnd.ms-excel',
		'rar'=>'application/x-rar-compressed','zip'=>'application/zip'
		);
		$file = $this->subDirectory . $file;
		//ah well, this is like mission impossible man.
		//at least i wrote it properly. from best solution to worst.
		if (function_exists('finfo_file')){
			$finfo = finfo_open(FILEINFO_MIME_TYPE);
        	$type = finfo_file($finfo, $file);
        	finfo_close($finfo);
		} else {
			if (function_exists('mime_content_type')){
				$type = mime_content_type($file);
			} else {
				$ext = strtolower(substr($file,-4));
				if ($ext[0] == "."){
					$ext = strtolower(substr($file,-3));
				}
				if (array_key_exists($ext,$mimetype_workaround)){
					$type = $mimetype_workaround[$ext];
				} else {
					$type = 'application/octet-stream';
				}
			}
		}
		return $type;
	}

function unzip($file){
		$return_files = array();
		$to_direc = $this->baseDirectory . $this->subDirectory;
		$fullpath = $this->baseDirectory . $this->subDirectory . $file;
		$unzip_test = trim(`which unzip`);
		if (!empty($unzip_test)){
			//remove stupid __MACOSX thingy
			exec("zip -d {$fullpath} __MACOSX*");
			exec("unzip -l {$fullpath}", $list);
			$num_files = count($list) - 3 - 2;
			if ($num_files > 0){
				while (($num_files - 1) != (count($list) - 3)){
					$this_file = explode(" ", $list[$num_files]);
					$this_file = end($this_file);
					$return_files[] = $this_file;
					$num_files++;
				}
			}
			exec("unzip {$fullpath} -d {$to_direc}", $result);
		} else {
			$zp = new ZipArchive();
			$zp->open($file);
			for ($i=0; $i<$zp->numFiles;$i++) {
				$thisdata = $zp->statIndex($i);
				/*need to deal with that stupid __MACOSX thingy*/
				if (!strpos($thisdata['name'], "MACOSX")){
					$return_files[] = $thisdata['name'];
				}
			}
			$zp->extractTo(WWW_ROOT . $file_path[0], $return_files);
		}
		$this->garbage[] = $file;
		return $return_files;
	}
	function unrar($file){
		$to_direc = $this->baseDirectory . $this->subDirectory;
		$fullpath = $this->baseDirectory . $this->subDirectory . $file;
		$return_files = array();
		if (function_exists('rar_open')){
			//unrars an archive, returns array of extracted files
			$rar_file = rar_open($fullpath);
			$entries = rar_list($rar_file);
			if (!empty($entries)){
				foreach ($entries as $entry){
					$return_files[] = $entry->getName();
					$entry->extract($entry);
				}
			}
			rar_close($file_path);
		} else {
			//you need to install unrar
			//unfortunately.. yum install unrar
			$to_direc = $this->baseDirectory . $this->subDirectory;
			$fullpath = $this->baseDirectory . $this->subDirectory . $file;
			$current_directory = getcwd();
			chdir($to_direc);
			exec("unrar x {$fullpath}", $result);
			chdir($current_directory);
			$end = end($result);
			foreach ($result as $key=>$result){
				if ($key >= 6){
					if ($result != $end){
						$data = explode(" ", $result);
						$return_files[] = $data[2];
					}
				}
			}
		}
		$this->garbage[] = $file;
		return $return_files;
	}

function processFiles($urls){
		$spreadsheet_types = array('application/vnd.ms-excel'=>'ProcessXls', 'text/csv'=>'ProcessCsv');
		foreach ($urls as $key=>$url){
			//these files should not be archives anymore
			$type = $this->getMimeType($url);
			if (array_key_exists($type,$spreadsheet_types)){
				$result = $this->$spreadsheet_types[$type]($url);
				if ($result != False){
					$urls[$key] = $result;
				}
			} else {
				//this is not a valid file
				$this->garbage[] = $url;
				unset($urls[$key]);
			}
		}
		return $urls;
	}
	function processXls($file){
		ini_set("auto_detect_line_endings", 1);
		$xls2csv = trim(`which perl_xls2csv`);
		$fpath = $this->subDirectory . $file;
		if (!empty($xls2csv)){
				$outFile = $this->subDirectory .$file .".csv";
				$exec = "{$xls2csv} -x "{$fpath}" -c "{$outFile}"";
				$exec = `$exec`;
		}
		$this->garbage[] = $this->subDirectory . $file;
		if (file_exists($this->subDirectory . $file . ".csv")){
			return $file . ".csv";
		} else {
			return False;
		}
	}
	function processCsv($file){
		//dont need to do anything right now.
		//you can add something here if you like.
		return $file;
	}

function zipFiles($urls){
		$files = "";
		$filename = time() . ".zip";
		chdir($this->baseDirectory . $this->subDirectory);
		foreach ($urls as $url){
			$files .= $url . " ";
			$this->garbage[] = $url;
		}
		exec("zip -r {$filename} {$files}");
		return $filename;
	}
	function cleanGarbage(){
		foreach ($this->garbage as $trash){
			$path = $this->baseDirectory . $this->subDirectory;
			$trash_path = $path . $trash;
			if (!is_dir($trash_path)){
				//delete the file.
				if ($this->keepOriginalFiles == True){
					if (!in_array($trash, $this->originalFiles)){
						@unlink($trash_path);
					}
				} else {
					@unlink($trash_path);
				}
			}
		}
	}

function extractCSVS($urls, $return_method = 'zip'){
		$this->originalFiles = $urls;
		$this->returnMethod = $return_method;
		//check file type
		//based on file type, send to necessary extraction method
		//if the file type is: zip, rar ->Extract the files
		$unzip_types = array('application/zip'=>'unzip','application/x-rar-compressed'=>'unrar');
		foreach ($urls as $key=>$url){
			$type = $this->getMimeType($url);
			if (array_key_exists($type,$unzip_types)){
				$unzipped_files = $this->$unzip_types[$type]($url);
				if (!empty($unzipped_files)){
					foreach($unzipped_files as $new_file){
						$urls[] = $new_file;
					}
				}
				unset($urls[$key]);
			}
		}
		$urls = $this->processFiles($urls);
		$return_file = $this->zipFiles($urls);
		return $return_file;
	}
        	function extract($file, $mimetype = False) {
		//creating this wrapper so that
		//files can be directly extracted
		$rand = md5(microtime(true)."");
		@copy($file, $this->baseDirectory . $this->subDirectory . $rand);
		if ($mimetype == False){
			//lets try to get the mime type
			$mimetype = $this->getMimeType($this->baseDirectory.$this->subDirectory.$rand);
		}
		switch($mimetype) {
			case 'application/x-rar-compressed':
				return $this->unrar($rand);
			case 'application/zip':
				return $this->unzip($rand);
			case 'application/vnd.ms-excel':
				return array($this->baseDirectory.$this->subDirectory.$this->processXls($rand));
			default:
				return array($this->baseDirectory.$this->subDirectory.$rand);
		}
	}

}

The post Dealing with data input: CSV File Extraction appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

Arguably, the dominant usage trend lies with messaging apps because they allow the user to engage in gratis peer-to-peer texting. Indeed, smartphone Mobile Instant Messaging (MIM) apps such as Kik, WhatsApp and BlackBerry Messaging are revolutionising the way that people communicate with each other, both in terms of cost-effectiveness and in terms of frequency of use.

Kik, for example, is a free messaging application that allows the smartphone user to engage in MIM from anywhere in the world. The application also notifies the user when the sent message has been read and whether the other person is busy typing a response. Although the app does not currently support images, Kik has recently announced that it will be updating soon, so as to support picture messaging as well as group chatting. The application is available for iPhone, iPad and Android devices.

WhatsApp, another smartphone messaging application currently popular in South Africa, enables you to send unlimited text, picture, audio and video messages across the globe. It only supports in-app messaging however, meaning that other parties must have installed the app as well. Undoubtedly, one of the niftiest features of WhatsApp is its ability to integrate with the device’s contact list, thereby automatically generating a separate list of contacts that are also using WhatsApp.

BlackBerry Messaging (BBM) is the peer-to-peer texting app for BlackBerry handsets: Each BlackBerry device is assigned a unique eight-digit number called a personal identification number (PIN), which is then used to send free text messages to other BlackBerry users.

With the user base of smartphone MIM applications growing rapidly, the question must be begged: What are the possibilities for commercial use? We know that successful businesses across the world continuously launch SMS marketing campaigns and that they readily reap the rewards thereof. Is there a possibility, however, that businesses can make use of MIM applications such as WhatsApp and Kik, to bring their costs down more or less entirely?

There are several crucial reasons as to why smartphone MIM usage has remained a primarily social phenomenon and is poorly applied to commercial use:

Firstly (and perhaps most obviously), individuals are unlikely to want to be engaged on a social platform for commercial use. The smartphone messaging applications are, in essence, designed to facilitate communication between friends, families and co-workers, and not between businesses and consumers.

Secondly, although smartphone sales are on the rise, most people don’t yet have access to BlackBerries, Samsung Galaxies or iPhones, to name a few of the most popular handsets on the market. This is especially true in rural Africa, where most handsets function on SMS and voice capability only. Moreover, whereas smartphone MIM apps mostly require an installation process, SMS functionality comes pre-installed on all phones, smart or otherwise.

There is no doubt that the cost-effectiveness, practical appeal and sense of immediacy of smartphone MIM has caused the usage of SMS amongst peer-to-peer texters to decline to some extent. However, the implications hereof for Bulk SMS users are positive- the lower volumes received makes SMS even more effective as an alert and notification medium. Also serving to balance out the effect of MIM apps on SMS usage is the fact that smartphones have actually made it easier to send SMS’s, with QWERTY keyboards, touch screens, threaded conversations and other improvements to the SMS interface (according to MyBroadband.co.za).

Streicher of MyBroadband.co.za summarises the point well:

Yet again, SMS, that accident of mobile technology, now in its 18th year, has proved resilient in the face of rapid and exciting communication technology advances and has earned its status as universal communications channel.

Sign up with Panacea Mobile for free and you, too, may come to appreciate the reliable, cost-saving value of SMS as a tool for commercial communication across the globe.

The post The Impact of Smartphones on Peer-to-Peer Text Messaging and Bulk SMS appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

SMS in Africa isn’t that new. It’s a fast growing industry and the opportunities for utilizing SMS in all walks of African life abound. In the Francophone countries in West Africa, consumer prices for staple grains are broadcast weekly by radio for the largest markets in the country. This is all good and well but it doesn’t work because many farmers simply live too far from the nearest markets; by the time they get to the markets, the information is stale. In 21 African countries farmers can now type in a code, send an SMS and receive information immediately – but what about the other 33 countries?

Three years ago my adventurer-son came up with the idea of using the internet to aid small farmers in Africa and I listened, as all mothers invariably do, but it seemed quite impossible at the time. Two years ago, we were chatting about it again and he insisted that it could work but only with SMS and again I didn’t quite grasp what he meant, more fool me. He’s always been way ahead of me in his thinking. Then, in November last year, I read that IFC, a member of the World Bank Group and the Soros Economic Development Fund invested $1.25 million into Esoko (Swahili for ‘market’), a Ghanaian technology firm, founded by Mark Davies, a brilliant young Welshman (born to a South African mother). What I found so interesting was that small African farmers would be getting some of the information that my son had been talking about three years ago! I wiped a considerable amount of custard from my face. The Soros Foundation and their partners realized that mobile phone usage was booming in Africa and that SMS was the only viable way in which to get information to small farmers in time. Way to go Esoko! They provide the kind of information that African farmers desperately need so that they can improve their own income and, in this way, jerk the GDP of African countries into the 21^st century. At this point I ask myself why more companies aren’t doing it and why more information isn’t available? After all, the world needs food desperately and Africa is fast becoming the only viable option left for food production, so why are we waiting? Why aren’t we doing something about it now? And I don’t want to hear about oil and war and corruption. Our planet isn’t going to be a pretty place if there’s simply no more food to be had.

Reuters set up a similar system, Market Light,  in India in 2007 but it only provided basic market data. Esoko went one further because it’s an integrated platform that will communicate all the data to the entire agricultural market, be it weather forecasts, transport costs & availability, prices and other relevant information. In other words, the company is aiming to integrate the whole agricultural industry and while it seems to be a long shot, I have a feeling they’re going to do just that. Again Ghana has proved to Africa that it’s a market leader, not only with the Black Stars & a free press, but now also in the agricultural field.

In order to understand the difficulties of farming in Africa, I interviewed a dynamic fruit farmer, Rijk Louw of Imibala Orchards who explained to me that there’s nothing easy about farming. He farms on a large scale in South Africa and has online access to everything he needs but agreed that farming in a region where information is difficult to obtain would have to be hellishly difficult. We discussed the problems facing small farmers in Africa and he pointed out that technology would have to be climate, market and region specific and it would, thus, be impossible to create technology that would suit Africa as a whole. To complicate matters even further, farmers would require super fast responses to any queries. When asked who, other than the farmer, would benefit from such technology, he suggested that seed, pesticide and fertilizer companies certainly would. They would, also, increase their sales. I would imagine that government institutions and aid organizations who build data bases would benefit as well. Back to the farmers: notwithstanding the normal problems & enormous effort that small farmers put into growing crops, the crops could become worthless because there’s no access to decent distribution (the roads are terrible, corruption is rife & transport almost non existent) and warehousing is inaccessible or overly expensive. Then there’s the flip side of the coin: distributors and traders often don’t even know that there are crops available and once they find out, they have no clue as to the quality or the quantity. Coffee, being my personal bugbear. In closing Rijk pointed out that all farmers need to receive some form of basic education because, said he, farming certainly isn’t just a matter of putting seeds into the ground and waiting for the rain!

Esoko’s software is tailor-made for Ghana & the 9 countries that use the technology because it’s not only suited to those countries but also to the farmers who live there, allowing them to communicate simply, cheaply and effectively. Esoko hasn’t only looked after the farmers but also the companies who are able to keep an eye on how their seeds & crops are progressing; governments and relevant organizations there are able to share critical information with one another. Simple bulk SMS does the job quickly and effectively. Esoko’s even gone so far as to publish the first commodities indices in Africa which helps farmers to ensure that they’re fairly compensated for their crops. Whilst this is admirable and really exciting, I would imagine that full use of it will only be made once Africa’s illiteracy problems are a thing of the past.

I believe that SMS and technology specialists can take Africa further into this century and economic independence but they would need the companies & governments who rule the roost  to come to the party, firstly because these are the people who have to agree that their old systems don’t work and secondly, because they would have to commit by investing their money on something new. After all, they will be reaping substantial rewards when the people of Africa benefit. The world will reap even bigger rewards when it wakes up and realizes that this is the continent that will, in future, supply them with food.

The post SMS and Agriculture in Africa appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

What is an API Key?

An API key is something that authorizes an application to use a users account to perform API operations.

OK, but I thought my username and password could do that?

Well yes, they can! However, we don’t recommend sharing your username and password with third party applications. Rather than allowing a user full access to your account with your username and password, just create an API key for that application, and then you can remove it any time, without affecting your account or other applications. An API key cannot log in to the console area (main area of your account) it can only access API’s.

Sounds pretty safe, how do I create one?

What we have done is allowed API keys to be created in two ways. The first way, is for the user to log in to their account and under their profile settings add API Keys. These keys are generated quickly and easily and are usable instantly.

The second way, is more focused towards developers who want to use your account, but aren’t necessarily sure you have an account yet. What this involves is, sending you to Panacea Mobile to request access, if you allow the application access, they will then get a unique API key generated for their application. Nice and easy!

This seems a bit confusing, show me a picture!

Sure no problem, for your convenience we have diagrammed how API keys are created.

click to enlarge

We believe this is a great way for users to allow access to their accounts, and it also simplifies life for developers who want to quickly ensure their target users have accounts, or quickly create accounts.

The post Panacea Mobile launches API key based authentication appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

an SMS message is considered to be spam if it was unsolicited and was sent by a company with the intention of selling you a product or service.

Most of us will agree then, that we’ve been there- at the receiving end of SMS spam. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve received messages from companies I don’t affiliate with, advertising products I would never buy. Hands down, SMS spam can be one of the most infuriating tactics that shady advertisers make use of. Indeed, it is not only the fact that you are being sent messages that don’t interest you (because you didn’t sign up to receive them), but SMS spam is also a simple disregard for one’s privacy.

The issue of SMS spam is a problem because although many SMS providers do follow the codes of practice for commercial SMS, there are countless ‘one-man-shows’ and disreputable Gateway Providers that do not. Since there is no legal regulation of malpractice in this regard (yet), they get away with it: consumers are either offered no way at all of ‘opting out’, or they are charged higher than standard rates to do so. (In South Africa, standard rates should never exceed R1.00 per message).

Locally speaking, independent organisations such as the Direct Marketing Association of South Africa (DMASA) and WASPA do attempt to regulate and protect both the industry at large and consumers, specifically. However, since their jurisdiction works on a membership basis only, their power is limited. The power, as such, lies with the individual companies wishing to advertise by means of SMS, and with their choice of SMS provider.

Choosing a Bulk SMS provider that follows best practice guidelines is not only in the interest of your clients, it is in your own interest, too, because sending unsolicited SMS messages is an ineffective, money-wasting endeavour that does the opposite to what SMS Marketing is intended to do- it tarnishes your reputation as a professional and responsible business.

Panacea Mobile understands the issues surrounding SMS spam and the damage it can do to your reputation. At Panacea, the practice of adhering to anti-spam policies is therefore regarded with the seriousness it deserves.  This is reflected in the company’s anti-spam policy, which offers consumers three effective options should they have been subject to SMS spam:

• Consumers can inform Panacea Mobile of the unsolicited message and keep their number unblocked;

• They also inform Panacea Mobile of the unsolicited message and have their number blocked against all outgoing messages in Panacea’s own global block-list;

• Or finally, they can register with the DMASA to have their cell number added to the ‘DMA Don’t Contact Me’ database. This they can do online at the DMASA’s website or by SMS’ing ‘DMA’ followed by their I.D. number to 34385.

(A friendly word of warning: the guidelines as set out by the DMASA are currently proposed law and may therefore soon become legislation, which would force any company embarking on a direct marketing campaign to run their list against the DMA’s Opt Out register and to ensure that any names on the register are deleted off their database).

Don’t run the risk of damaging your company image, or of cheesing off potential customers. Follow the codes of best practice when you embark on an SMS marketing campaign and make sure that you chose a provider that adheres to the rules. Sign up with Panacea and you can relax in the knowledge that when we do business, we like to keep a clear conscious.

The post Shady Business Practices: SMS Spam appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

Sub-Saharan Africa, for various reasons, hasn’t seen too much infra-structure development; for example, only 29% of roads are paved, 25% of the population has access to electricity and of the 3 landlines per 100 people, most of them function poorly. When I worked there, phoning home was an absolute nightmare that saw me spending my evenings in the hotel room trying to get through to my children. Now there are 10 times as many mobile phones as landlines and 60% of the population has mobile phone coverage with subscriptions having increased by 49% per annum between 2002 and 2007 (compared to 17% in Europe). In my humble opinion, we ain’t seen nothing yet!

This is all good and well and it’s great that everyone can phone each other but phone calls still cost money as opposed to SMS that costs a fraction by comparison. Over and above that SMS can be utilized by a plethora of organizations on a large scale to make life just a little easier for themselves – not only in the agricultural field but also when it comes to medicine and many other fields. In Kenya, Malawi and South Africa (for example) people affected by HIV & AIDS already receive text messages daily to remind them that they have to take their medicines on cue. In Zambia measles have been monitored, in Mozambique health workers can support diagnosis & treatment in this way and even in Uganda, Malawi and Benin health education messages are sent by text mesages. Why isn’t more of this happening everywhere in Africa? By 2012, most villages in Africa should have coverage, with only a handful of countries – Guinea Bissau, Ethiopia, Mali and Somalia remaining relatively unconnected.

I started thinking about drugs and Africa when my youngest son came home from Uganda last month. Before they left for the airport they had a few Shillings left and needed to spend it on something so they popped into a store and asked what they could buy. In short, they left the store with a huge  package of Valiums (that they neither needed or would ever use) because it was dirt cheap, almost used up the Shillings and left them just enough for the taxi to the airport. He thought it was hilarious but being a mother, I was horrified; not only because of the drug, but more so because I know Africa and wasn’t too terribly convinced of it’s origin, label notwithstanding.

So how can medicine be positively affected by SMS? Well, let’s have a look at malaria. Malaria is dead easy to treat if you catch it early enough but if not, it kills you. In (mostly) Africa just under a million people* die from the disease annually because it’s not easy to get hold of medicine in Africa and when you do, more often than not, it’s fake. Wouldn’t it be great if anyone with a mobile phone could verify that drugs are the real thing? Similar to the Cape Town based fish alert where one punches in the name of a fish to find out whether it’s safe to eat or not (27794998795), here unique codes would have to put on all packages containing medicines so that potential buyers could simply text the code to a phone number on the package to receive a yes or no answer, the drug’s name, expiration date and instructions for taking it. Enter Bright Simons of mPedigree, who’s doing just that with Hewlett-Packard in Ghana & Nigeria but is that enough? Sure there’s competition from company’s like Sproxil** who did much the same with Glucophage***but so what? The big drug producers will need to pay for the systems through subscription fees but they’ll more than make up for it when the counterfeiters get this kick in the knees. But why is it taking so long, why aren’t all drug companies frothing at the bit to join in? Can it be that the speed of corporate innovation is that slow, a mere clumsy crawl? Patrick Lukulay of the USPC, a USA non-profit organization that tracks fakes, really understates it when he says that “mobile phones can be a simpler & cheaper solution”.  Wow, it’s not just a matter of ‘can be’, Mr Lukulay, it really is the only only technology that will work in Africa today. Take it or leave it.

Mobile-phone health information (aka mHealth) is another field that’s wide open and under-utilized in Africa (apart from AfriDoctor) and it astounds me. There’s no need for fancy phones to provide the most basic medical information to both patient and doctor; any simple mobile will do and yet, I see so little of it when I look around!  I can go on for hours and it would take a convention to exhaust the possibilities of SMS in medicine in Africa but the bottom line is that more attention has to be paid to it and we need to talk to the SMS specialists because, yet again, it’s about bringing the large corporates and governmental organization to the table with the only people who can help to bring aid to millions of Africans quickly: the technology guys, preferably those who live and work in Africa because they know and understand the continent.

But this isn’t where SMS and medicine stops in Africa. This is where it begins. Medical councils, medical ministries and health organizations need to sit down and think a minute. Then they need to decide what their greatest problems are, contact the SMS guys and devise systems that will bring much needed relief to millions of people across Africa using the cheapest and easiest form of communication there is on that continent at the moment. SMS.

The post How SMS Can Affect Medicine in Africa in Future appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

All this may sound fairly simple at first, but choosing the right SMS provider to manage your SMS campaign can be a daunting task. Indeed, the choice you make will largely determine the eventual success or failure of your SMS campaign down the line. In order to help you gain some oversight in this decision, we’d like to provide you with some crucial points to consider when looking for an SMS provider.

The first and most obvious issue in this regard seems to be that of pricing. What is the per-message cost of the provider you are looking at using? Importantly too, what coverage do they offer? These two points go hand-in-hand, because you may find a provider whose costs are low when sending messages to the United States, but if your customer base is in Europe, that point will be irrelevant to you. Look at pricing and coverage together, and then decide whether the costs involved would suit your budget. Don’t forget though, your marginal per-message costs should be decreasing- if they are not, you are sure to be able to strike a better deal elsewhere.

Secondly, you need to look at whether a provider offers well-documented API’s (Application Programming Interfaces) and sample code. These features are extremely useful to developers as they can help save a lot of time and effort.  It is also vital to look at the different types of interfaces offered by a provider, and to ensure that a variety of API’s is offered.

However, as important as the development and software aspects of an SMS campaign are, you should also ensure that your prospective provider understands the significance of effective marketing. Your provider should, for example, be able to advise you on the correct marketing platforms and channels to use, given your specific target market. Make sure that the people that will be steering your campaign have enough industry experience and insight into your specific business needs in order to be able offer you quality service in this regard.

To be able to monitor the subsequent success of your campaign, you will need to have access to real-time reporting to ensure your messages are reaching their destination. Find out how detailed these reports will be, and the ease with which you will be able to access them.

Advanced batch processing systems are another way to ensure that your campaign will run as hassle-free as possible. Selected providers offer batch processing systems, which allow you to upload an Excel file that automates your entire campaign for you. Although not all providers are able to offer this feature, it is worth finding out about since advanced bath processing can be an extremely useful and time-saving tool.

Moreover, it is important to verify that your account will be easy to access and manage, since this is will ensure that you have ultimate control over your campaign. Make sure that you test out the user-friendliness of a potential provider’s account management system before making any decisions: It should be straightforward, easy to navigate and well organised. If you feel that a provider has failed in this regard and that managing your account would be a complicated task, then it means that they are missing one of the basic principles of good service delivery in the SMS industry.

Finally, make sure that your prospective provider offers reliable online and telephonic support. Not only should a support team be ready to answer any questions you may have during your SMS campaign, they should also respond to your query as quickly and efficiently as possible. A response time of more than 24 hours is undesirable, especially if technical help is needed urgently.

Having done extensive research on this topic and on our competitors, we feel confident that Panacea Mobile performs exceptionally in terms of each of the above aspects. Firstly, our pricing system works on a decreasing marginal cost basis, meaning that the more messages you send, the less your per-message costs will be. Not only is our pricing competitive, but our coverage is also worldwide, offering our clients access to a variety of markets, both locally and abroad.

Moreover, Panacea Mobile has ensured that any developer can interface with its Bulk SMS Gateway by providing them with detailed API’s and sample code. And as much as we love to focus on the technical side of things, we are equally committed to offering our clients expert campaign management, making sure that they have peace of mind throughout the entire duration of their SMS campaign. Panacea Mobile is also proud to offer advanced batch processing, user-friendly account management systems and a skilled support team that is able to respond to clients’ queries within 12 hours.

Sounding good so far? We think so! But don’t take our word for it- sign up for free and see for yourself.

The post What to look for in your SMS Provider appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

The Mobile World Congress as we said in our previous post, just opened our eyes to how users and consumers of mobile messaging and other services have been mistreated in terms of shoddy products and delivery services.

So what have we done that is going to effect you in the near future? We have negotiated with some key partners and mobile network operators around the world to enhance our already great coverage, so your messages will get delivered faster and more reliably than with any other carrier.

The focus of the congress in general was very much on mobile application development, with the app planet and other exhibitions illustrating the requirements in that space, so we will also be focusing on making sure these app developers have everything they need to develop scalable and trusted applications.

One final point, which is a bit of a criticism of ourselves, is that although we have better systems and routes than 99.99% of the competitors out there, we have failed to make the market aware of this through our marketing efforts, which we are going to change in 2011 and disrupt the market with our highly competitive offerings. We are saying no to bad systems this year

The post Mobile World Congress 2011 final recap appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

Since a good education provides the human capital needed to improve productivity and facilitate development, it seems crazy to pay so little attention to education in Africa! After all it’s the only way people will acquire skills needed to promote growth and development. So where does SMS come in?

African children travel long distances to get to school, often under terrible climatic and political circumstances so it’s not uncommon to miss school and therefore, homework, tests, lessons, notes or advice as well as much needed help from the teachers. Over and above that, teaching materials are often non existent with a single text book shared amongst many and pencils and paper in very short supply.

But things have changed. The advent of mobile phones heralded a new beginning for Africans because reliable communication became a reality and not a dream. Today 28% of all Africans use mobile phones and two thirds of the world’s mobile users live in developing countries with the majority of mobile users being teenagers or in their twenties. Donor agencies have known this for years and ABDI & UNESCO sponsored the first Mobile Learning workshop in Tokyo in 2005, the report is available online and well worth the read. It focussed mainly on using SMS to support current teaching and learning processes but not in place of current teaching materials. There’s no doubt in my mind that it’s possible to replace a larger part of a current syllabus with SMS technology. Bear in mind that the generation of teachers & educators who currently design school syllabuses do not use SMS to the extent that the pupils do and probably wouldn’t know how to; it’s understandable, therefore, that they will not be as innovative as technology could allow when it comes to designing a methodology whereby the child can utilize SMS to access teaching materials at their own pace. This is where the SMS specialists come into the picture and this is where the mindset of the average educator has to change. It doesn’t mean that the child need not go to school or have access to class mates, teachers and discussions. Of course not (though, long distance learning has been proved to be very effective in Africa). It does mean, though, that we have to look at the situation in Africa and design a system that will ultimately benefit the child and not so much the teacher (who in many instances is poorly educated because of the massive ‘brain drain’ caused when well qualified teachers leave to find employment in developed countries). In order to do this the educators need to talk to children and to the specialists who will design the systems. In Niger, literacy programmes for adults have been taught where to find letters and numbers on a mobile phone to send and receive SMS; students quickly learnt to send SMS’s in their own languages to friends and family & in so doing, they practice what they’ve learnt. In regions without local language newspapers and certainly no libraries, SMS makes literacy functional. Preliminary results suggest that the mobile phone-based participants are learning faster than students in normal literacy classes, achieving levels that are up to 30 % higher! Sure, there are many other pilot projects all over the world from Thailand, Mongolia, India to the Philippines with text2teach project probably the biggest I’ve come across. It’s clear that  SMS is not being used as efficiently as it can be used, especially not in an era where apps can be designed to suit a particular education system. SMS costs so much less than paper and since the world is running out of paper and Africa cannot afford computers for each student, more use should and can be made the mobile phone and SMS. Of course the ideal solution would be to use smartphones but since they won’t be dropping in price sufficiently to make them economically viable for Africa, one would have to look at other solutions and there are many. Once again we’re faced with the clash between the mindset of the average African educator and the technological possibilities that would suit the average African teen.

Africa doesn’t have time to waste and education is vital to the development and well being of the entire continent so it’s probably about time the generations start co-operating and accept the ways of the past just aren’t going to work anymore.

The post Education and Mobile Messaging in Africa appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

One of the most successful forms of mobile marketing has been in the use of Bulk SMS (SMS Marketing). Although SMS Marketing has spread like wildfire between businesses of all sizes, the small to medium sized business, particularly, stands to benefit from this form of advertising.

Because we so strongly believe in the power of SMS and because we like to help out, we have here listed ten ways in which SMS Marketing can powerfully enhance the advertising capacity of your small to medium enterprise:

1.      Mobile messaging can effectively level the playing field between large and smaller enterprises because of its cost-effectiveness. Small businesses with limited budgets are able to reach as wide an audience as larger enterprises, due to the low per-message costs.

2.      Global coverage means that as a smaller enterprise with a fittingly smaller advertising budget, you are no longer restricted to reaching local audiences only.

3.      Messages are targeted and always based on the consensus of the consumer; and if you know your target market well you will be able to relax in the knowledge that your messages are appropriately tailored and that you have spent your money in a worthwhile way.

4.      Due to this targeted nature of SMS Marketing, response rates with mobile messaging are much higher and the revenue of your small to medium sized enterprise thus increases.

5.      Mobile Marketing is instant- you can reach people wherever they are, whenever you need to. There are therefore no long delays that may draw out the process of seeing a return on one’s investment.

6.      SMS Marketing is viral in the sense that messages can easily be forwarded from the original recipient to additional consumers.

7.      With Mobile Marketing, small enterprises are able to retain their existing customers, as well as gain new ones.

8.      The interactive nature of SMS Marketing creates the opportunity for a dialogue to ensue between you and your customers, meaning that you are more informed about your clients than you would be using other means of advertising.

9.      Access to real-time reporting of each message that is sent out means that the small to medium sized business is able to exercise control over its communication.

10.  Finally, messages can easily be automated and there is no need for personnel to have to monitor the process: You save both time and money.

With Africa fast becoming the most exciting emerging market to be in, small to medium sized African businesses can benefit (and certainly already are benefiting) from the uses of SMS Marketing as they expand their horizons. Panacea Mobile is the leading SMS provider in the industry- both locally and abroad, with its exceptionally low pricing, expert campaign management and the most advanced, stable and reliable platform for text messaging around the world. Indeed, having just re-established its competitive edge at the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona, the company is approaching its African and overseas clients with renewed energy and confidence.

Want to be part of the movement? Sign up for free with Panacea Mobile.

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More important than this is, we have had a close look at our competition in the industry, and we are feeling more confident than ever. Why, you may ask? Well we have looked at some of their tools and systems and it is very apparent to us that we have the premier platform for text message delivery around the world. After seeing this, we have decided to press on with our innovating ideas and continue to shake up the industry with even better and easier tools and API’s to use. Just this year we launched our new SMS API system which has more system coverage than any other API on the market, allowing you to be more flexible with your development.

We have had little time to roam the halls as yet due to our meetings but so far the outstanding item for us has been the Android proliferation and the marketing presence of the Android. We will continue to focus our expertise in this area as it is definitely going to be the mobile OS to watch in future.

That’s it for the quick half way recap, we will post a full update after the congress. We look forward to seeing you there.

Not a customer yet? Sign-Up Now View API documentation

The post Mobile World Congress 2011 – The half way recap appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

SMS (Short Messaging Service) Marketing has been one such development, and the benefits thereof- especially in Africa- have been unprecedented. According to start-ups analyst Thomas Oppong, Africa is home to one of the fastest growing mobile markets in the world, with mobile subscriptions hovering around 379 million- a staggering figure when compared to that of only 54 million in 2003. The Guardian has also pointed out that while the growth of fixed landlines has remained static for the past decade, access to mobile phones in Africa has soared five-fold in the past five years. Importantly too, ownership of cell phones has expanded into the middle and lower-income markets, meaning that a much wider market can be reached via SMS than with alternative methods.

These statistics have resulted in African businesses becoming increasingly aware of the power and reach of SMS Marketing. In Africa particularly, text-based mobile marketing is most effective because the majority of handsets in rural Africa run on SMS and voice capability only. Indeed, whilst the ‘digital divide’ in Africa persists in terms of mobile internet access, SMS marketing remains the most accessible means by which to communicate with millions of consumers on the African continent.

An analysis of the costs and benefits of SMS marketing quickly reveals that it is not only one of the most far-reaching advertising methods, but also one of the most cost- and time-effective ones. It’s time-saving because messages are sent almost instantly across networks. Moreover, the use of quick-message templates can drastically reduce the effort involved in promoting your product or service. It’s cash-saving because of the low costs per SMS and because each message is specifically targeted, and wastage is thus not an issue! The interactive, two-way character of SMS marketing also means that response rates are higher than with traditional marketing methods, and that your ROI increases accordingly.

Panacea Mobile has been and continues to be one of the pioneer companies in facilitating the growth of SMS Marketing in Africa and around the world. With the use of our advanced SMS Gateway, we are able to specialise in the delivery of bulk SMS. How does Panacea Mobile stand apart from its competitors? Well, in a nutshell:

• Panacea Mobile’s services are based on the most advanced software in the industry, ensuring you full delivery guarantees;

• You are provided with real-time reporting including relevant statistics on deliveries and failures for your campaign;

• There is no sign-up fee and message pricing works on a competitive pay-as-you go basis;

• Extensive experience in the mobile industry means that Panacea Mobile is able to offer tailored advice regarding which platforms, handsets and technologies you need to focus on.

• Our team is young, energetic and committed to coming up with solutions that meet your specific needs.

Would you, too, like to take advantage of the growth in the African mobile market and enjoy these benefits?  Then click here and we’ll show you how.

The post The Impact of SMS Marketing in Africa appeared first on Panacea Mobile.

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“The implementation itself is not necessarily a special occasion – the fact that South African merchants are finally able to use the PayPal service to accept payments is.” says Stefano Sessa.

Offshore clients have always been able to pay via PayPal, but only to merchants that have been able to transfer the funds to a South African bank account, FNB’s effort to break this barrier has now made it possible for all internet merchants to accept PayPal payments.

“We see the benefit mainly from an international perspective. We all know that accepting foreign payments are time consuming, and this will help save some time and enable foreign clients to pay South African businesses quickly.”

FNB clients are able to use PayPal to accept payments, and transfer funds directly to their FNB accounts. “FNB does charge a small fee for the transfer of funds from PayPal to your FNB account, which makes this option only viable for non South African payments. It would still be cheaper, faster and easier for South African clients to pay by EFT or Credit Card. I have no doubt, however, that in time this too will be phased out and South Africans will also be able to enjoy the benefits of PayPal.”

“For South Africans, we have partnered with E-Cash to process payments and 2CO for Foreign Payments. This enables our customers to experience a truly hassle-free and fast payment experience”. says Stefano Sessa.

About Panacea Mobile

Panacea mobile specialises in the entire mobile value chain. Specialising in Online Campaign Management, Bulk SMS delivery, Mobile Billing and Strategy & Consulting, Panacea mobile strives to offer a truly integrated approach to mobile. Founded in 2009 by Stefano Sessa and Donald Jackson, Panacea Mobile has grown to be one of South Africa’s only truly fully integrated mobile services company.

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Mobile cloud computing

I think in order to understand the ‘new WAP’ one should distinguish between the new and the old. I like to refer to the new WAP as mobile cloud computing, seeing that it’s now possible for smartphone browsers to interpret smarter wapsites. That name is long and unnecessary though, so for arguments sake, let’s call it “awesom-o”.

So what is “awesom-o”? Put simply, it’s an infrastructure where data storage as well as data processing happens off-deck (off-deck refers to a function not on the phone). What this really means, is that it’s now possible for things to happen on the web, instead of on the phone, just like any web-service you currently enjoy on the PC web. Like your stock-standard internet. Now I am sure there are loads of people out there that are frantically disagreeing with my statement, and you are right too. Cloud computing exists on far more phones that just the smart ones. My sentiments, exactly.
That’s why improved WAP sites are cool. I’m not saying apps aren’t cool, it’s just that they are expensive to develop. If you think about it, in order to be present on the top devices via apps, you would have to develop for approximately 4/5 application stores, 4/5 different software environments and 4/5 different resources.

The flipside, which is “awesom-o”, in turn only has one development environment, and can be skinned with multiple CSS layers, so you could essentially have a different look and feel for each device. The downside to “awesom-o”, is that you do not get the free promotion you receive by being present on the app-store, nor do you get the on-deck presence which makes your service only one click away. With WAP, a user needs to enter a URL and go to the site in order to gain access. An app is one click away.

Now, in a market like South Africa, or any other under-developed mobile market, what do you do? Resources are scarce, and smartphone penetration is yet to mature. The simple answer is, prepare for the growth, it will come. However, do so wisely. It might not be viable for your specific product to be present on deck, or it might be vital. These are the things that you as a marketer should decide.

A US example where apps served to be much more fruitful than a WAP site is Pizza Hut. Pizza Hut launched an application for the iPhone after they had already built a WAP site which was not doing well, to say the least. However, the application they launched generated direct sales to the tune of $1 000 000 in the first 3 months. Not app sales, pizza sales.

If you are innovative in your marketing, anything is possible – this should be your mindset when choosing WAP vs. APP.

In my opinion, one would do the research specific to the brand, investigate opportunities, and find the perfect balance.

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