The biggest idea in technology is finding new ways to team up in order to capture the attention (and the dollars) of consumers. Cell phone manufacturers are joining forces with sites such as Facebook and MySpace to increase the convenience of accessing these popular social sites from mobile platforms. The new alliances are beginning to bypass the traditional avenue of partnership with mobile phone carriers, leading to a fundamental change in business plans.
The marriage of handset software and social networking sites has already proven advantageous to all parties. Perhaps the most famous example is the successful relationship between BlackBerry smart phones and Facebook, as brokered by Research In Motion software. This successful marriage will celebrate its first anniversary this month. At the time of the launch, Research In Motion CEO Mike Lazaridis said, “Facebook is one of the fastest growing web destinations among BlackBerry smartphone users and it has become an important element in the evolving fabric of personal communications.” The past year has proven this to be true in spades.
Now these romances are beginning to involve more and more manufacturers and the key social networking sites. Hutchison-Whampoa has integrated Facebook into virtually every facet of its soon-to-be-released INQ1 phone. Nokia is working hard to strike a deal with Facebook to integrate the Nokia operating system software with that social networking giant. Even smaller social networking sites are getting into the game; an iPhone app is due to be released via Apple for the up-and-coming Plurk social networking site.
These deals seem to signal a fundamental shift in the way business is done in this important mobile marketplace. There has been little if any reaction to the trend by mobile carriers such as AT & T and Verizon. After all, phone-level integration with social network sites does not get in the way of the primary carrier services. And tighter integration has been proven to increase phone usage, and therefore carrier revenues. This may be a rare win-win situation in the usually volatile and hotly contested mobile marketplace.
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