Q & A with Bryon Morrison, President of Wireless Marketing
How will the mobile ecosystem respond to the rise of video?
There’s no choice for the mobile ecosystem but to embrace video. Data’s taken over voice and texting as the primary activity in smartphone access to the networks and the majority of that data is video content.
Facebook will certainly introduce another speed bump for the carriers, but they’ve been battling this issue ever since YouTube took over mobile.
Video content is a wave that’s been building for some time and the carriers know they’re in store for a tsunami. From the beginning, the networks have always had video channels of their own they tried to push on smartphones, but it was an insignificant traffic issue. Then, along came the iPhone. AT&T took the brunt of the customer service hits being the first to take on the game changing device, but now everyone is dealing with the issue.
There’s no question there will be growing pains in the way consumers learn about whether their plans permit them to access video and it will likely sneak up on them faster than your 8-year-old can make an in-app purchase. The thing to keep in mind is that mobile is a complete opt-in medium. No one has to go to a site, download an app, receive a text, receive a push message, make a purchase or click on an ad. They’re all options that we have so buyer beware — but have fun doing it!
