6 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}
6 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}

SMS versus Smart Phone Apps

by BillBert
5 replies
From an offline marketing perspective, I am struggling with how long SMS will be around before it is overrun by smart phone apps... Should I market SMS services or develop smart phone apps for business/customer contact?

Smart phone apps are really cool, colourful and have tons of potential in the way of user interactivity.

Whereas, SMS is boring and plain and limited.

SMS works on any text enabled phone, where an app needs a smart phone.

Smart phones come in many different configurations, iPhone, Android (Several Flavours), Blackberry etc. Apps need to be ported to the different OS phones to get broad acceptance.

My gut is telling me that SMS is here to stay for sometime to come, but I am not sure. What is the general consensus?

Thank you for your input.
#apps #phone #smart #sms #versus
  • Profile picture of the author attag
    With the emerging markets China and India controlling most of the growth (mostly non-smartphone users), messaging will still be king for another 4-5 years. I believe in the West smart phone penetration is around 50%

    Smartphone penetration still has a ways to go. But the mobile messaging market continues to gain traction and will reach $330+ billion by 2015.

    You're safe with either, IMO.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5801916].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author RobbieT
    IMO SMS is going to be the way to go for the next couple of years.
    Signature
    learn how to Make Money From The Web

    Follow my Journey to make an extra $40 or $400 per week each week and TOP UP YOUR WEEKLY INCOME

    Check it out here - Make Money From The Web
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5801931].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author BillBert
    One benefit of SMS versus App, is that with the apps, they usually default to push off, well at least on my iPhone. If it is not off, I usually turn it off which means I am not at the beaconing call of any marketing. Whereas SMS is always on, unless someone unsubscribes.

    Just my 2 cents.
    Signature
    Do You Need a Cost Effective way of reaching out to your offline clients or prospects?

    Feel free to contact me directly and I will give you the details!
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5801992].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author xlfutur1
    This is kind of like saying in 1995 "will websites be the end of email marketing?"

    With apps a user has to install the app on their phone. People are only going to install the apps that really are useful to them.

    I have a client with 750 SMS subscribers. There is no way that those 750 people would install their app (its a pizza place), but they don't mind getting SMS messages a couple times per month with relevant messages about the restaurant.

    SMS might be plain and boring, but so is email marketing and direct mail for that matter, and they still work fine. Everything has its place. Apps are great, don't get me wrong, but I doubt they will replace SMS marketing in the foreseeable future.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5802235].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author chrisnotes
    Whereas, SMS is boring and plain and limited.
    Cannot disagree more here. There is soooo much you can do within SMS. Dig past the surface and you will find ways to make a text really exciting for most people participating.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5803340].message }}

Trending Topics