Mobile the 7th Mass Media is to internet like TV is to radio

UPDATE MAY 2008 - there is a strongly updated and revised major article about the 7th Mass Media, entitled Deeper Insights into 7th Mass Media. You might want to read that first.


Mobile as the 7th mass media is as much superior to the internet, as TV is to radio. Today at 2.7 billion mobile phone users, there are three times as many mobile phones as personal computers (and over a quarter of all internet access is already from mobile phones). There are nearly twice as many mobile phones as TV sets. Twice as many people use messaging on a phone (SMS text messaging) as use e-mail on the web. But mobile was first a communication device. It emerged as the 7th mass media only by the year 2000. By far the youngest of the seven mass media, the mobile is also by far the least understood.

Not the dumb little screen version of TV

Some TV experts will marvel at the ability to show TV content on the mobile phone screen. They then think with a legacy TV mindset, and assume the phone is the dumb little screen, worth only for "snacking" and that "classic" TV content (programmes) should be chumped into tiny bits of football highlights and news soundbytes and little "mobisodes" and this will bring TV to mobile. No. That is like taking a radio play, and bringing the actors and their microphones, and showing it when they read a radio play on TV. No, TV had power in allowing celebrity, to see the acting, not only to hear it. We need to understand what makes the mobile phone SUPERIOR to TV.

Not the dumb little cousin of the internet

I often hear various internet experts talk about how limiting the mobile phone is for internet consumption. That there are problems with scrolling, and the keypad entry is cumbersome, and we lack a mouse on the phone. This is as stupid as the TV experts. We should NOT try to replicate the existing internet onto the mobile. Mobile is not a "small internet", it is a NEW mass media. As different from the internet as TV is from radio. We can do so much MORE on the phone that cannot be done on the internet. Like built-in cameras. We don't need to have a format which clumsily requires us to type long web addresses, if we build the interactivity around the camera - use 2D barcodes for example, which bypass typing altogether.

And Scrolling? That same argument would suggest we cannot comfortably consume newspaper content on a PC, yet after a newspaper website is cleverly reformated - with a search button for example near the top - the internet is SUPERIOR to the newspaper, even though a traditional full page newspaper does not fit on a PC screen without some zooming or panning or scrolling.

Inherent threat media

So how of the mobile as the 7th mass media. It is first of all, the first mass media that can do everything each of the SIX previous mass media can do. Yes, like the internet, the phone can replicate all of the traditional mass media - we can read printed content like newspapers (print, the first mass media) download music recordings (second mass media), watch movies (third) listen to radio (fourth) watch TV (fifth mass media). Not all of it is as convenient or comfortable, but all of it is possible on (advanced handsets) of mobile today. Just like all of them are available also on the internet today.

Plus the phone can also copy all of the legacy PC-based internet (sixth mass media) of today. Remember we don't need for the experience to be identical - a movie on TV is not as impressive as it is in the cinema, and reading a newspaper is not the same on the web as in print - but only that it can be replicated. Consider a music record. It cannot be replicated in print. Yes, we can print the lyrics or the score, but you cannot hear the Beatles in print. But TV can replicate the recording, and actually enhance it - by showing the band or in a more modern context and new format - show the music video.

Back to mobile. All of the existing media can be delivered via the mobile. So the mobile is an "inherent threat" mass media, capable of cannibalizing any of its predecessors. And yes, it includes the new innovations of the internet (interactivity and search, what was new on the web and not available on the five old media) - both interactivity and search are already fully existing on mobile today.

Mobile is superior: Has 5 elements that are unique

But mobile adds five elements not possible on the previous six mass media, making the mobile the inherently superior mass media. First, the mobile is personal. It is the first truly personal mass media. We don't share our phones even with our spouces, its that personal. Some may think their internet is personal, but even if it may be for some, as a rule, the internet is not personal. It seems personal, but we typically share our internet access at home with our family (children using the family PC etc) and at work our employers have rights to snoop around our e-mails and stored files etc. The web is semi-personal, but not really personal. Our phones, on the other hand, are truly personal.

What is more, from a media owner point of view, the mobile is the first mass media where every single media consumer can be identified uniquely and distinctly. On TV we measure by Nielsen ratings. On the web we see multiple aliases and false identities. Magazines and newspapers only sell circulations. But on mobile, we know every single user. We don't need to "know their name" as such (with prepaid accounts), but that is actually pretty irrelevant whether my name is Tomi Ahonen or Donald Duck, as we do know every single audience member by their unique phone number. Did +44 1234 567 890 come back today to view the next episode of our content. Yes, and he watched all of it, and bought the related screen saver. Wow, that degree of accuracy. Never before in any media.

Secondly the mobile is the first always-on mass media. Yes, we can leave our CNN on at the hotel at night, but TV was not intended to be consumed 24 hours a day. This ability of the mobile as an always-on media is so amazing, that we can actually sell services via the mobile, to deliver alerts of what is going on in other live media formats, like delivering via mobile alerts, when something important happens in 24 hour news shows, or for example if something is happening in the Big Brother house, or say a radio station is playing our favourite artist. The mobile is the ultimate alert and news media, faster by several orders of magnitude over any other media. And the most rapid news delivery formats such as the live news ticker on 24 hour news shows, is already making money on mobile - just 18 months from its launch, 16% of Japanese iMode users already subscribe to the live news ticker similar to the CNN News ticker (and called iMedia) which displays on the phone screen when it is in idle mode.

Thirdly the mobile is the first always-carried mass media. The phone is with us literally, within arm's reach, at all times. Seven out of ten people sleep with the phone within arm's reach even at night - and the vast majority of those have the phone in bed, yes thats true - that is how close is our relationship to our phone. We do take it to the bathroom with us. No other media has this intense a relationship with its audience.

Only Mass Media with a Built-in Payment Channel

Fourthly the mobile is the first mass media with a built-in payment mechanism. This is a massive iceberg totally not understood by most even within the industry. Never before was there "click-to-buy" ability in any media. We could not see a nice shirt or perfume shown on a magazine ad and point at the page to buy it. We could not point at our TV screen to set up a test drive for that new BMW or Audi. If James Bond pours a champaigne on the movie screen, we cannot run up to the silver screen and point to it, to order a bottle to our home. Even on the internet, payment always required setting up a separate payment system like Paypal or giving long number series of credit card info etc. Hardly "click-to-buy". But on mobile, it is that simple. Yes. Click-to-buy. Any content, any service, any product, anytime, anywhere, by anyone. No credit checks. No need for bank accounts. We can sell to 2.7 billion people at simply the concept of Click-to-buy. Ringtones. 6 billion dollars worth already. Many times more than the total of iTunes and all MP3 files sold online. Click-to-buy. Books, CDs, ringback tones, videogames, movie tickets, airline tickets, hotel reservations. Click-to-buy. insurance, parking, fishing license, speeding ticket. Click-to-buy. Like the episode? Click-to-buy. Want to send it as a gift to a friend onto his/her phone? Click-to-buy. Want to subscribe to it now, on the spot? Click-to-buy.

What combines not only the convenience of the credit card - twice as many people have mobile phones than have credit cards, and kids as young as 7 years old have mobile phones while credit cards tend to have an 18 year age limit - but also the convenience of the credit card reading device. So in our pocket, its not only that the phone replicates the credit card (and debit card) but it has the built-in "virtual credit card reader". So like a taxi cab who has the credit card swipe machine, our phone has THAT built in as well. Truly the ability to handle the payment, not only identify us as the person entitled to use the credit card. We can handle the actual payment on the spot, by enabling a click-to-buy feature to our mobile page. This is not just beyond previous mass media, this is truly revolutionary. The media channel converges with the credit card company, through mobile as the 7th mass media.

At the point of creative impulse

But I have one more, the fifth and last benefit of mobile, beyond any other mass media. Mobile uniquely offers the media audience the input tool, at the point of creative impulse. Not like the digital camera which is at home. Not like the laptop PC which takes its "Microsoft minute" to power up if we have a moment of inspiration. No, the mobile is always there, when we consume our media and whether because of it, or inspite of it, have a sudden urge to create. Our phone is always with us at the moment of inspiration. To snap a quick photo of the beautiful sunset, and post it at our blog. Or snap a quick paparazzi photo of David Beckham as he passes by on the street - and we can quickly offer to sell the photo on to some celebrity magazine. And as we saw with the hanging of Saddam Hussein, it was a cameraphone used to shoot the footage that caused such an uproar. Available always at the point of inspiration.

So yes the mobile, as the 7th Mass Media is the youngest, least understood, most dangerous new mass media - one which will soon supercede the internet. Not because consuming a web page is better on a phone (that would be stupid to even try) but rather has five benefits the internet cannot hope to match. And in addition to those five, the mobile can also replicate all that the internet can do, while not necessarily replicating all of those media experiences quite as well.

So this is what I want. I want YOU to spread the word. This is the dawn of mobile as a mass media. The sky is the limit. Nothing is set in stone. Now is the time to invent. Those brave souls who came from radio, and looked at the opportunities in TV and decided to go beyond listening, and invented the Game Show format, and the Talk Show, and Reality TV, and music video, etc. Don't look at limitations, comparing mobile to TV or the internet. Think of the possibilities and develop the mass media beyond what has existed before.

This is the newest mass media, and will soon be the most powerful mass media on the planet. It has enormous implications to the current giant, TV. And to its revenue engine - advertising. It has a huge implication to the internet, which will soon be overtaken in importance by mobile. Yes, you heard it here first. Mobile to the internet is like TV is to radio. Be sure you capture the real opportunity of our lifetimes.

I have written a two-page concise "Thought Piece" on this topic, if you'd like it, please write to me and I'll send it to you for free. My e-mail is of course  tomi at tomiahonen dot com  You may freely forward that pdf file to your colleagues as well.

The mobile as the 7th mass media. It is not the dumb little brother of the internet. It is inherently superior to the internet. Mobile is as dominant to the internet, as TV is to radio.

UPDATE 2 - Alan's company SMLXL has just released a White Paper in June 2007 which is really good to illustrate the differences in what makes 7th Mass Media unique. And now there are 6 benefits on mobile as a media channel, rather than the 5 I mention in this blog. Get the free SMLXL White Paper on Mobile as 7th Mass Media by writing to him at alanm (AT) smlxtralarge (DOT) com

NOTE 1 - this is a follow-up piece on earlier writing when we explored this topic with Understanding 6th and 7th Mass Media

NOTE 2 - my column in the current edition of the Mobile Handset Analyst entitled "Mobile is the Best Medium" covers this topic as well. The MHA is only a print-edition publication for the mobile industry, by Informa, so I can't give you a link to it, but some of our visitors from the mobile telecoms industry may be interested also in that article.

UPDATE - I've added thoughts of how the launch of the iPhone will boost the media world's interest in mobile. Yes this June it will be a big noise indeed.

Comments

[David Cushman]

Tomi, obviously I'd like to see the thought piece: david.cushman@emap.com

Many thanks for another brilliant post - a compelling argument indeed.

[David Yoshikawa]

Hi Tomi, I would be grateful if you'd send me your thought piece. As a regular visitor to your blog and graduating student, your blog has provided me with some great new insights into the world of mobile telecommunication and has been a true source of inspiration while writing my Masters thesis on convergence in the mobile telecom industry. This post once more made me aware of the endless possibilities of mobile communication. Cheerz =)

David Yoshikawa
yoshikawa_david@yahoo.co.uk

[felipe zylbersztajn]

Yes, I'd like to receive the piece you have written on this topic: felipe.abril@gmail.com
thanks!

[Peter Boland]

Very inspiring and insightful article, Tomi. I'd love to receive your thought piece. Many thanks!!

[Patrik Rouault]

Hi Tomi,

I'd like to receive "Thought piece".

Many thanks
Regards
Patrik

[Nicolaas Pereboom]

Tomi,

I have just finished reading your great book Communities Dominate Brands (which I bought through Ajit/Futurepress)and I am very interested to alse receive your Thought Piece.

I am involved in setting up a (mobile) web platform for destination visitors (leisure & business) with some ex-Vodafone NL people (I saw your comment on ForumOxford about Vodafone NL and the Dutch which I of course hope is true ;)). I have also been asked here for a project related to city marketing and region branding and how to integrate mobile into this. Your ideas will certainly help here. Thanks!

Nicolaas

[Jon]

Great post...informative.

Would also appreciate receiving your "thought" piece. TIA.

[Heike Scholz]

Hi Tomi,

I'd like to receive your Thought Piece.

Thank you very much.

Best regards
Heike

[Mark Logan]

Tomi,

Great post. Please sign me up for your Thought Piece too.

Mark Logan
Barkley

[john]

Tony outstanding please send the two pager

[Adrian Lai]

Yes,

Solid argument. I would love to get a copy of that Thought Piece.

Cheers!

[Joshua Y]

Thanks, Tomi -- well argued and inspiring. I'd like to see your Thought Piece and share it with people where I work.

[Tomi T Ahonen]

Hi David C, David Y, Felipe, Peter, Patrick, Nicolaas, Jon, Heike, Mark, John, Adrian, Yoshua

Thanks for writing. I wasn't expecting you to post the pdf request here in the notes (but I didn't retype my e-mail address this time, so I obviously didn't make this too easy for you, sorry).

Thank you for the comments.

I will send you all the pdf now. Note Nicolaas and John - your e-mail addresses did not come through to me on your registration. Please check your e-mail, if the pdf isn't there, please write directly to me at tomi at tomiahonen dot com.

Thank you all for writing. I noticed a couple of you have already commented on the story (thank you for that as well). I'll do a bit of a survey and stop by and drop comments at your blogsites where I find such comments.

Tomi Ahonen :-)

[Rajan]

Hi Tomi,

This is a great post. Reminded me of a phrase I saw somewhere about media changes, dont know where i saw it.

McLuhan had said that "medium is the message" in his epic book on Understanding media but mobile has turned it upside down and now "message is the medium" and thats why we have this new media staring at us.

Rajan

[Alan moore]

Dear Tomi,

I shared this concept with some of our colleagues, yesterday, they found it to be a very powerful concept.

You rock.

Alan

[Tomi T Ahonen]

Hi Rajan and Alan

Thanks Rajan, good sentiment and yes, it does turn the media world kind of upside down ("again" - which really did happen already once with the internet, due to interactivity and user-generated content. But even before the old media have recovered from that, comes this crazy mobile...)

Alan - thanks. Its a partnership, you know that, and you inspire me and so much of this thinking is from the discussions you and I have regularly. I'm happy our colleagues have also embraced these thoughts...

Tomi :-)

[R.A.B Gandhi]

Hi Tomi,
it's a very inspiring piece of thought you have. I'm a starter in this mobile business, need that kind of inspiration a lot. Please send me those two-page concise "Thought Piece" of yours, it would be wonderful.

Thanks in Advance,
Gandhi

[Sacha Vekeman]

Hi Tomi,

As co-founder of Mobiya (www.mobiya.com) I am keen to read and distribute the 'Thought Piece' to my investors. Mobiya is in the business of mobile enabling the global classified advertising industry. A copy would be very much appreciated.

Many thanks,
Sacha
Mail: sacha at mobiya dot com

[Gustav Clark]

Tomi,
That is a powerful idea. You're directly addressing all the critics, a group I usually find myself in. There are a lot of problems with the mobile platforms we have but there are enough people acknowledging them to give me hope they'll be solved.
Send me the Thought Piece please

Thanks,
Gustav

[Tomi T Ahonen]

Hi R.A.B, Sacha and Gustav

Thank you for writing. I've sent the Thought Piece to each of you.

Tomi Ahonen :-)

[Cooli]

Moi Tomi,
Your article made my day yesterday, thanks :-)
I'll be happy to read further with your thought piece (cooli (at) online (dot) fr)
Have a nice We!

[alan patrick]

Hi

I don't buy this argument....if anything I would argue that mobile is like radio and the 'net is like TV - one is a portable, low bandwidth media with limited UI - the other has massive bandwidth, UI and functionality. Transistor radios were personal but TV took all the lolly.

The other problem is the current mobile 'phone maker/operator cabal have given away market segment after market segment - email to Blackberry, music to iTunes, Video to ??? by not building decent user devices in time for the task in hand.

[Tomi T Ahonen]

Hi Cooli and alan

Cooli - Thanks for the kind words.

alan - I'm very happy that you took the time to express your doubts and concerns. This is of course what Alan and I hoped to achieve with our blogsite for topics covered in the book. Not only to "preach to the choir" but equally to reach out to those who may not fully agree with us, to have the dialogue. I really appreciate it that you wrote.

So lets get to my replies.

First on the "Low bandwith, mobile is more like radio rather than TV" argument. Very good counter argument and indeed mobile is today, and I foresee it to remain into the next ten years at least, bandwidth-restrained compared with the mobile phone.

Bandwidth itself is no key to dominance, else cinema would dominate over TV and TV over the internet. But still, this is a good point, and it does strike at the heart of what I mean.

The mobile IS a (relatively) low bandwidth proposition. SMS is simpler than e-mail (and used by twice as many people) and ringing tones are DRASTICALLY simpler than MP3 full-track music (and yet generates 6 times the revenues of all MP3 files sold worldwide). This is the issue I want us to understand. While the phone cannot match the exact performance of all of its rivals - it can still replicate the content experiences for the most part, across all legacy mass media including the PC based broadband internet. Enough to allow us to experience those media formats also on the mobile.

But mobile introduces five elements not available on any mass media before. Because of these, we can invent NEW concepts for mobile the mass media, which cannot be done on legacy mass media. And to address your point, they can be very "low bandwidth" indeed they SHOULD be very low bandwidth.

Let me give you one concrete example from South Korea today. They were one of the first countries to launch real-time traffic cams that you could call up with your 3G phone to see what the driving conditions were like. This service, as a traffic conditions "news" concept is something we cannot do in any legacy media except the internet. You can't show live traffic cams on newspapers or the cinema or in recordings or radio. Even on TV you can't scroll through several hundred traffic cams in a meaningful way today or dedicate a hundred channels of broadcast so you'd reach each individually.

This is a service that only can be delivered via the internet or on mobile. But now, it gets better. Since 2003, in South Korea, they have had the personal real-time traffic STATISTICS page. Based on those real time camera views, they measure the driving speeds on all points where the cameras exist. They then let you customize your personalized traffic optional routes, and illustrate ON ONE PAGE the speeds at every camera on a given route.

The service has both gotten MUCH BETTER, and more personalized, AND SIMPLER than on 3G cameraphones. Yes, we needed the 3G video abilities to teach our drivers that this kind of science fictional service exists and is possible. But then the service evolved to be more user-friendly (faster). Now on one screen I see the average speeds of all the points on my route. Oh, the intersection beteen Smith Street and Wesson Street is slow, let me see THAT camera only.

By making it "simpler" by its bandwidth needs, the traffic camera related personal traffic stats service in South Korea has become MUCH BETTER for its users. It is now a killer application, where the initial 3G traffic cam was only a clever application.

This is what I mean we need to do across all media offered to the mobile. Like ringing tones. Yes, we can sell MP3 files to phones, but MP3 files can also be sold on CDs, DVDs, the internet, etc. But on mobile we can offer waiting tones (ringback tones), welcoming tones (eg Cyworld), background tones etc. All of these are impossible on say an iPod. What makes our media superior to the legacy media, that is what we need to learn. The services and money will be there, not in attempting to port the legacy internet to mobile.

Now on the "losing segment by segment" argument, and thinking e-mail ie Blackberry and music ie iPod, here I strongly disagree with you. The initial market is always for the stand-alone device because of the market economics. The population of the devices is so small, the handset makers won't bother with the couple of million that for example the iPod sold in its first few years. As they sold 950 million mobile phones last year, the phone makers do need to target segments which are a relevant fraction of that. Musicphones became that only three years after the iPod was launched, in 2004.

But once the phone industry aims for a given technology, its game-over, in a matter of months. Last year, 2006, Apple sold 46 million iPods with growth slowing down to 46% annually. In the same year, musicphones sold 309 million units with growth annually at 243%. This is so utterly "Game over". Oh, please don't re-open that old argument that you don't listen to music on your phone, or among your peers you dont' see this happening, or people can't or won't consume MP3 files on their phones. The world went mercilessly past that point in 2006 and every consumer study on musicphones reveals that yes, people DO listen to MP3 files on their musicphones. Not everybody, but so many that the iPods reign is totally over. I've blogged about this at length last year and the final installment of that saga was this blog entitled Requiem for a Heavyweight:

http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2007/01/requiem_for_a_h.html

Same story as mobile phones versus stand-alone digital cameras, same story as mobile phones versus stand-alone PDAs, sames story as mobile phones versus wristwatches.

On Blackberry you present an interesting example. It is a mobile phone, but one optmised not for talking but for e-mail access. I've tracked RIM's and the Blackberry's emergence since its launch in 2001 and have many insights into what works and what doesn't on it, why its so popular (crackberry) in America, and an utter failure in all more advanced mobile markets. By 2006 they had about 5 million subscribers worldwide. Thats 0.2 percent of all phones globally. Wow, pretty sad in fact.

What most don't notice, as Nokia has not been pushing these numbers to hard, is that the Nokia Communicator series (world's most advanced and most expensive smartphone series across the years, and by far the most expensive smartphone among the major brands up to 2006) which has had in-built e-mail capability since day one back in 1997, has outsold Blackberries every single year, by a wide margin.

But OUTSIDE of America, none of the heavy users of messaging BOTHER with e-mail on a phone. Why? Because SMS Text Messaging is far superior to e-mail. For the current youth, quoted from South Korea to California, all agree, e-mail is for old fogies. Its like for the current e-mail generation adults to think of fax. Why on earth would I use such an archaic communication method (and we hate it when someone insists on a fax eg to send a signature to some weird country etc). The only reason Blackberries succeeded in North America, was that American business execs hadn't learned of the far superior power of SMS text messaging.

Talk to any British exec. 80% of them say SMS is their most valuable communication method. Not teenagers, these are the busy London city counterparts to Wall Street and Madison Avenue and the various law firms etc of Manhattan. Yes the Blackberry can be a crackberry if you've never tasted more potent "drugs" but SMS trumps e-mail.

So to your point, mobile vs the niche apps, yes, niches survive early before mobile becomes interested (GPS receivers for example today) but the moment the mobile phone makers get interested, they totally take over. Every industry by knock-out, not one defeat. The one we have ongoing right now is pocket TV, which again mobile is totally dominating.

Thanks for writing

Tomi Ahonen :-)

Now, on

giving up segments ie Blackberry iTunes (and video)

[Liam Greenlaw]

Great piece. Can you also send me the thought pice as well please.

Thanks
Liam

[wad]

great post! please send me the thought piece.

thanks in advance,

wad