Media Week

There are lots of things to say about new figures from Nielsen Mobile that show US mobile users now text more than they call. But, most important might be the proof it offers that usability really is the thing to focus on when it comes to providing content and services, especially on our fiddly little mobile devices.

In the first quarter of 2008 texting overtook phone calls in the US for the first time. The US has been very slow to adopt texting compared with the rest of the world for one simple reason - they didn't offer it until 2004. Then, when they did, they weren't compatible with each other (as ours weren't when they first started).

Verisign argued in vain in 2004 that the services should be interoperable from the start. Their research showed that the one thing that prompted texting to leap in any market where it was available was the ability to text someone no matter what network they were on. In the UK, for example, the number of texts jumped 3.5 times once interoperability was established (April 1999).

Being able to text anyone is pretty fundamental to making SMS usable. And what often happens when it comes to new technology is that the industry focuses so much on the abstract benefits ('engage!', 'entertain!', 'connect!') they forget to focus on what really matters - making sure people can actually use it.

This is nowhere more the case than in mobile where the carriers were pumping out grand messages about the wonders of the mobile internet in 2000 when only now is a mobile connection anywhere near good enough to support such claims. And that's not that often.

One of the reasons cited for the jump in SMS use in the US in the past year is the growth in availability of phones with QWERTY keyboards. Users with QERTY keyboards text 54 per cent more says Nielsen. This is more proof that - especially in  mobile where we have less patience and a fiddlier experience - making a service usable is key.

In short, a service can be usable but not useful and gain audience (back to the iPint) but not the other way around.

My views on the iPint (great idea, could have gone further) prompted some to argue that the idea was good enough to preclude any criticism. Now it seems even that might not have been theirs in the first place.

For BMB, which created the iPint for Carling and won a Cyber Lion at Cannes for its efforts, is being sued by an apps developer that created iBeer and claims it refused BMB the rights to use it as the technology behind iPint. BMB instead went elsewhere to create their own.

Now, nicking ideas is not a rare occurrence in adland - particularly now that the 'viral' effect lands loads of them on creatives' PCs on a regular basis - and if iPint was nicked then it's the latest in a long line. But the mistake will have been to have messed with application developers.

Theirs is a close-knit world. They often feel they are fighting towards some undefined common goal (The Matrix, War Games and Tron will almost always feature in their favourite movies) and interlopers, particularly those from the dark world of 'traditional advertising', are not particularly welcome.

If BMB is found to have ripped off a member of this particular sect of the digital landscape, then it will have done much to confirm everything they already think about ad agencies. Since marketers these days need technology on their side to stand any chance of having an impact, that is not a helpful state of affairs

Beattie McGuinness Bungay hit with $12.5m lawsuit for 'iPint' app

Why the iPint fails (abridged)

I hesitate to mention the words Crazy Frog, only so we might avoid putting that damned thing in anyone's heads again. But, News Corp has made that impossible by buying the half of mobile content company Jamba it didn't already own. Jamba trades as Jamster. Jamster made the, erm, barmy amphibian.

So, why should Murdoch want to make buddies with such a blight on our cultural heritage? Well, ignoring the fact that cultural blights are not something he particularly cares to avoid (Fox News, Dream Team, The Sun...), it makes sense.

First, Jamba makes lots of money by peddling ringtones, which is essentially what anyone is talking about when they laud current mobile content revenues. Second, it is a content creator. Jamba already produces versions of Sky TV shows for mobile digestion. So, while people like me talk up the potential for mobile TV - and honestly we'll all be doing it one day - Murdoch picks up a business that makes News Corp very well-placed in the unlikely event that I'm right.

News Corp's digital investments are almost all hits because he (and/or his digital investment guru Jeremy Phillips) manage to stay relatively risk-free. They only buy businesses that already make money (or, in MySpace's case, they know are just about to). If they don't, they only invest for a small share with a view to taking more if it proves its worth.

In mobile, where there are even more wild and uncertain predictions than any other media platform ever, this approach makes even more sense. Unlike that darned ribbity thing.

News Corp acquires Jamba for $200m

Trade associations get a mixed press but the mobile operators’ GSMA is one that seems to have got a handle on focusing on what its members – and industry - really need.

Given the task of working out how the networks might best help mobile media and advertising develop, Henry Stevens at the GSMA has come to the view that it should develop a standard of measurement for mobile web audiences (for site rankings by demographics, handset and time of day), for agencies to plan and buy against.

This is very smart. Misguided though they may be, the major issue keeping P&G and their ilk from committing significant spend to online remains the lack of this kind of standard. But, what Henry’s up to could deal with the problem before mobile has got going. Online’s weakness (& strength in many ways) is that it has evolved without a standard of audience measurement and it’s got so big that the process of imposing one now is a study in reverse engineering.

As long-time mobile bod Helen Keegan pointed out to me a while back, we must always remember that the operators’ core business of voice and text carriage utterly dwarfs the ad industry as a whole, let alone the ad revenues that might run through their infrastructure. So, to criticise them for their lack of attention to its development is something akin to having a go at an elephant for not cleaning its toenails.

Still, it seems clear that what little attention they might give to it could be heading in the right direction.

Mobile body looks to create traffic measurement system