Justin told us yesterday how “marketers are overestimating what average everyday consumers know about the smartphones they use,” and that the industry needs to “educate consumers on the potential of new-age smartphones and other devices,” lest their campaigns fall on deaf ears. Yet it seems that consumers, or at least “prosumers,” are more savvy than their employers about high-end technologies like smartphones–to the detriment of corporate workplaces, according to the report titled The Consumerization of IT, conducted by International Data Corp and sponsored by Unisys Corporation.

Researchers surveyed 2,820 workers in 10 countries, as well as 650 global IT decision-makers. Turns out most workers invest in the latest consumer technologies themselves, and use them in the workplace–while employers are often unaware of such technologies, much less integrating them into the workplace.

“The research shows a profound disconnect between what iWorkers are doing with consumer technologies in the enterprise and what IT leaders believe is happening in their organizations… The ‘consumerization of IT’ trend will turn existing IT and business models on their heads,” said John Gantz, chief research officer and senior vice president, IDC.

“This research raises important questions as to how well prepared today’s organizations are to… capitalize on new ways of doing business, connecting with customers, and attracting future workers,” said Sam Gross, vice president, Global IT Outsourcing Solutions, Unisys.

For example, workers surveyed said that they are using smartphones and mobile phones in the workplace at nearly twice the rate reported by employers–meaning that workers are using their own phones, not just company-purchased ones. (See accompanying chart.) The number of employees using smartphones for work is expected to double between 2010 and 2014, says IDC. And already, more than 40 percent of workers surveyed use text messaging for business–an effective way, as marketers know, to build a more intimate-feeling relationship between businesses and their customers.

Yet companies aren’t exactly supporting mobile phone productivity. Fewer than half of employers allow subordinates to access enterprise applications via smartphones, according to the report; and employees give their employers below-average ratings for the IT support that their organizations provide for such consumer technologies.

(For the full report, go to http://blog.unisys.com/.)

The silver lining may be for marketers. While bosses remain unaware how connected to customers and to the workplace their employees are, employees themselves can be reached via the devices they bought for themselves. The time is ripe to reach out to prosumers, whether text-messaging them about the lunch special at the corner cafe, or using Foursquare to get them into a certain bar for happy hour, or making it easier-than-ever to make Internet purchases on a certain mobile-optimized online store. Likely their supervisors will be none the wiser.

A shining example of which is a new startup called “Tagwhat,” which made its public debut today to offer what’s its calling “a new augmented reality (AR) experience that fuses the very best of mobile, augmented reality, and location-based social networking services for everyday use and appeal.”

At it’s core, Tagwhat is a fully functional social network, layered on top of the physical world and accessed by “tags” through an innovative augmented reality experience.  By simply holding up the camera view of a mobile device (iPhone or Android), geo-contextual tags from pre-selected friends and community members become visible.

For example, just walking down the street Tagwhat reveals a wealth of relevant information, discussions, and deals — such as a coupon for a nearby establishment, a discussion thread for a meet-up with friends, or a restaurant review about a sushi place around the corner.

The concept of bridging the gap between mobile social networking and physical world engagement is a powerful combination, and one that signifies the future.  Tagwhat has done so using a patent-pending augmented reality technology that lets users leave behind digital crumbs (tags) for any location, place or thing, anywhere in the world for friends and followers to discover.  Each marker is an interactive social object, and can include direct action links to email, phone, SMS, photos, URL’s, cross-posting to Twitter, Facebook, and more.  As a result, friends are able to easily interact and share information with one another with the added benefit of location and AR.

Suddenly, “checking in” at a particular coffee shop, dropping pictures at several bar locations from last night’s pub crawl, or creating blog entries from personal favorite locations as they are discovered or re-visited, opens up a whole new realm of possibilities.  With a single click, users are able to easily let friends know where they’ll be in 5 minutes, then get turn-by-turn directions to the tagged destination, and flip through photos of a friends’ night out on the way over.

What’s interesting to me is the fact that Tagwhat incorporates the acts of “checking-in” by way of tagging and including digital content, as well as following businesses, friends, etc. in a Twitter-like fashion- effectively combining the attributes of Twitter and social networking startups like Foursquare and Gowalla, layered on top of a completely new physical world/AR/location-based experience.  It’s pretty impressive really.

Within the Tagwhat network, marker streams come alive with the digital crumbs and content a member chooses to follow from networks of friends, community members, and businesses.  In addition, for a more expansive experience users can reach beyond their existing network and search for specific content and users by keywords.  If your interested in discovering restaurants, for example, follow local culinary aficionados and merge their AR experience into yours.

Tagwhat’s technology represents a shift from the static “Web 1.0″ world of AR browsers to the participatory interaction of “Web 2.0.”  Tagwhat is ‘create-and-share’ mobile AR, and is the first mobile augmented reality distribution system where anyone, not just developers, can create their own AR content and share with their friends anywhere in the world, in seconds, for free.

To monetize, Tagwhat will undoubtedly utilize a hyper-local advertising model, similar to Foursquare, whereby local businesses can offer promotions, offers and deals to users who “follow” them or merge their AR experience with that of the businesses they like most.  Users can find their favorite stores and follow them for the latest deals and events.  Think of it as Foursquare on steroids.

I’m quite impressed by what Tagwhat has created, even after playing with it for only a short period of time.  Even though it’s just the beginning and a user-base is still evolving, I see the startup making huge waves in the near future.

The comScore study evaluated the change in brand loyalty within a number of consumer goods categories, including health & beauty aids, OTC medications, apparel, food, household products and housewares. As the economic downturn has continued, the percentage of shoppers who typically buy the brands they want most has steadily declined across the categories examined.  In March 2010, for example, less than 50 percent of shoppers reported purchasing the brand they want most.

For most categories, the drop in likelihood to shop for the brand wanted most is not restricted to buying other brands on sale.  Rather, a sizeable percentage of the change in shopping approach is being driven by a decision to convert to less expensive brands to save money.

“A decline in loyalty to consumer goods brands is typically one of the byproducts of a recession as consumers give greater consideration to price,” said Mr. Fulgoni, comScore’s chairman. “Research we’ve conducted at comScore ARS has quantified the impact of the ‘trading down’ effect within a number of different product categories, highlighting consumers’ increasing willingness to switch brands in the face of pocketbook constraints.”

Though the decline in brand loyalty is undoubtedly effected by cost-savings from a consumer perspective, it also has to do with the brands themselves.  Adopting new methods to engage customers and keep a brand relevant should be a top priority for businesses — especially those engaged in consumer goods — and the time couldn’t be better.

Utilizing mobile concepts to engage an audience on new levels and insert a brand image in contextually relevant and highly targeted content can do wonders for a brand that’s quickly seeing a loss in customer loyalty.

Social media, and especially location-based social media marketing is another tool that’s highly under-utilized by brands still.  The ecosystem slowly growing around services like Foursquare, Gowalla and others is creating a truly unique opportunity for brands to engage their audience on completely new levels and through concepts that consumers enjoy the most.

Though the use of direct branding through traditional channels was once sufficient in maintaining brand and customer loyalty, the landscape is perpetually shifting.  As comScore’s survey results suggest, consumers are shifting the way they see their favorite brands, and loyalty is decreasing by a sizable rate.  Utilizing in-direct branding through mobile and social media marketing can be a savior for brands if used properly, it’ll just involve thinking outside the box.

Even Foursquare itself is surprised the service has caught on as quickly as it has, and the inherent growing pains of a fast moving startup are beginning to take hold.  The ecosystem that’s evolving around the service is growing by leaps and bounds, and advertisers have seized on the model as a way to serve up location-based ads and special offers, without annoying mobile users.

Upon launching its “Local Business Dashboard,” which allows local businesses to sign-up and launch offers and promotions to take full advantage of the potential, Foursquare has been bombarded with local businesses wanting a piece of the pie.

“Foursquare’s funnel is overflowing now.  They’ve got so many people that want to work with them that they can’t handle it all,” said Michael Schneider, vice president at ad agency Allen & Gerritsen Inc.  “We’re kind of stuck with the vanilla experience of go to the site and fill out a form.”

Advertisers aren’t the only ones that want in on the Foursquare craze.  The site’s Web traffic quadrupled in the first quarter of 2010, to 2.1 million unique visitors monthly.  With a $1.4 million Series A round of venture capital in its pocket, Foursquare last week reportedly turned down an acquisition offer of more than $100 million from Yahoo.

The folks at Foursquare are likely beginning to realize what they’ve stumbled upon- which is a solid foundation to pioneer the concept of location-based mobile advertising, combined with integrated social networking and mobile apps.  Though that wasn’t the initial goal of the startup, the evolution has begun and will likely pave the way to Foursquare being a massive player in the mobile-ad game very quickly.

Location has long been regarded as the “holy-grail” of mobile advertising.  Finding effective ways to incorporate location for increased relevance and targeting will do wonders for the advancement of the industry, and Foursquare is currently in the best position to make it happen.

As such, an interesting executive commentary was published today by Ned Taleb, CEO and co-founder of Nexius, a company that offers numerous carrier-grade solutions to prominent operators such as AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon and many others.  In other words, 4G is a big deal for him, his company and his clients.  Below is the commentary in its entirety, it’s a pretty interesting perspective.

“….The first quarter of 2010 has just come to an end and a colleague at Nexius recently asked me what seems to be the hot topic with our operator customers and the technology press and analysts this year. My simple answer: 4G.

From Apple previewing the 4th generation of its revolutionary iPhone today to operators racing to launch their 4th generation networks, 4G is the marketing term of the moment.

At CTIA Wireless in March, I saw 4G news everywhere. Every major US wireless operator spoke about their 4G plans at the show:

• Verizon said they expect to roll out LTE in nearly 30 markets to cover 1/3 of all Americans by the end of 2010. The biggest LTE rollout and the first to market in the US.

• Not to be outdone, however, AT&T announced that their 4G vendor trials are underway and that they plan to begin commercial rollout early in 2011.

• While, T-Mobile didn’t dive deep into 4G but they did announce plans to make a faster HSPA+ network available in markets that serve 180 million people by the end of the year. Since HSPA+ is backwards compatible with T-Mobile’s current 3G technology its customers can continue to use their existing handsets to enjoy considerably faster network speeds.

• Sprint made perhaps the biggest 4G news at the show showcasing America’s first 4G smartphone, the HTC EVO 4G, which they will launch on the Clearwire WiMAX network. Sprint CEO, Dan Hesse, said in his address “”LTE will be the larger of the two standards, but we couldn’t wait. We have enough spectrum that we could add other techs later.”"LTE will be the larger of the two standards, but we couldn’t wait. We have enough spectrum that we could add other techs later.”LTE will be the larger of the two standards, but we couldn’t wait. We have enough spectrum that we can add other technologies later.”

• Even MetroPCS, a smaller operator, announced that it will launch its 4G LTE service in the second half of 2010. They are also working with Samsung to launch the first LTE handset, the SCH-r900, on their network later this year.

But it isn’t just operators and Apple talking 4G. Even Avatar director, James Cameron, recently jumped on the 4G bandwagon by pointing out that faster 4G networks would be the key to delivering 3-D applications on the phone. (To be precise, he actually said faster “G4” networks would be the key…but he makes movies, not cell phones.  His audience is Generation-X, Generation-Y, and beyond. He cares not for the enabling technology platforms but what they can do to bring media such as “Avatar” into the palm of the next generation of audience. So G4 it is, in as far as it really matters to our clients and customers. J )

Clearly 2010 is all about speed: 1.) Getting to market quickly. 2.) Launching faster networks and faster devices. 3.) Delivering content to consumers at the speeds they demand. It really does not matter which 4G wireless operators deploy, be it WiMAX in the interim or LTE in the longer term, the objective is the same: to enable the realization of the future of wireless services and applications. Everyone from wireless operators to Apple to James Cameron want to deliver these services by uniting the best technology platforms with the fastest networks and the next generation of smart devices.

We feel fortunate that Nexius has had the opportunity to work with so many of these leading companies to develop their 4G network rollout strategies as well as create, deploy, and integrate the services and applications that these networks enable. It’s great to be at the center of such fast-paced innovation. Only time will tell who wins this battle for 4G dominance. Let’s check back at CTIA 2011 to find out….”

An article posted on AdWeek today makes a strong case against mobile apps, citing several reasons why the excitement surrounding the concept may be a little premature and why SMS remains the clear leader in terms of mobile marketing spend.  ”Don’t get me wrong.  Mobile apps can be a great way to engage in the right context, but the reason that text continues to be the dominant force in mobile marketing is simply reach and usage,” the author explains.

The logic is hard to argue with; nearly every cellphone in the U.S. is capable of text messaging and because it’s used for regular personal communication, it’s always top of mind in terms of general daily use.  By comparison, only 18 percent of all phones in the U.S. are smartphones.  Further, Juniper Research forecasts that smartphones worldwide will account for just 23 percent of all new handsets sold per annum by 2013, hardly representing the mass market for general consumer goods and services.

Mobile apps are dominated by the iPhone, with most development going toward its platform, which only represents 4% of the entire mobile market.  With such a frenzy for mobile apps, competition is rampant with very few avenues to distribute, apart from Apple’s App Store which has the most competition of all.  Because of it, the mobile app market is beginning to be saturated.  SMS, on the other hand, has none of these limiting attributes.

“Strategy Analytics confirmed that only four to six mobile apps are used on a consistent basis. Brands need to be aware that there’s intense competition for share of the mobile phone desktop,” the article explains.  ”It stands to reason that consumers are not going to continue to download and use an unlimited number of mobile applications, and there are many questions over whether we have reached the saturation point already.”

The study, sponsored by the European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA), studied mobile Web usage across 15 European markets to see how consumers are “extending the ways in which they enjoy and engage with the internet and its growing influence on everyday lives.”

The study found that on average, 71 million Europeans use the internet on their mobile each week – for an average time of almost one hour every day – averaging 6.4 hours per week of total browsing.  This compares with an average of just 4.8 hours reading a newspaper or 4.1 hours reading magazines.  This increase is largely being driven by the younger generations with 24% of 16-24 year olds and 21% of 25-34 year olds already using the mobile Web and spending on average 7.2 and 6.6 hours respectively each week.

Though the study focused on Europe, it no doubt mirrors a worldwide appetite for mobile Web usage, acting as a key driver in the decline of printed publications, for good reason.

“Better devices and connectivity as well as enhanced consumer motivation all started coming together in 2009 to improve and extend the overall  Online experience, explained Alison Fennah, Executive Director of the EIAA.  ”As a result, the internet is now being consumed across PC, laptop, mobile and gaming devices, providing 24-7 access to digital information and entertainment.  This presents a compelling case for brands to explore and incorporate a growing number of complementary interactive platforms into the marketing mix.”

67% of the world’s population represents around 4.6B people, up from only 1B in 2002, indicating staggering continued growth.  In developing nations, however, the uptake is even more substantial with 57% of the total population in these nations being mobile subscribers, even though other technologies are scarce.

To compile the report, the UN tallied mobile phone, land-line telephone and internet usage in 159 countries, which ranged from the most advanced European nations to the least developed nations in sub-Saharan Africa.  The report also found that Internet use has grown, but at a much slower pace.  It’s no secret that mobile devices are replacing computers in many parts of the world, and that a large majority of Web usage is attributed to mobile.

The potential for mobile marketing is obvious, especially in developing nations, with cellular penetration (CP) more than doubling in developing nations such as Africa and India since 2005.  The CP in emerging markets exceeded 50% for the first time in 2009, reaching an estimated 57% by the end of the year, the report claims.

Providers and carriers are already taking note, as earlier this month, Vodafone revealed it will target consumers in India and across Africa with two new, ultra-low cost handsets which will support mobile banking and other services.  Without immense competition as felt in developed nations such as the US and European countries, the possibilities are endless.

With increased interest surrounding mobile marketing, it’s interesting that proximity marketing has been largely looked over, though both concepts are fundamentally different.  While there’s really no definition that exists which separates the two, the easiest way to distinguish proximity marketing from mobile marketing is simply the concept of localized content. Potential advertising audiences must enter a “localized” area such as a grocery store or a shopping center in order to receive the advertisement with proximity marketing, while mobile marketing doesn’t require such an attribute.

Education of marketers in the U.S is one prohibiting factor in my mind, with almost no news coming out regarding the technology, even though numerous companies exist on U.S soil that provide proximity marketing solutions.  Marketers are already bombarded with so-called new-age marketing channels, and adding one more to the mix will confuse the masses even more than they already are.  Still, proximity marketing offers something even mobile marketing in large part can’t provide; being extremely inexpensive and very easy to integrate.

Integrating a proximity marketing campaign involves acquiring a simple, inexpensive module to place on-location, in billboards and posters, or even on people at events, and loading it up with content to send to consumers who come within close “proximity” of the module.  Once it’s in place, the module does everything, sending highly relevant, location-based ads and content without any further interaction on part of the marketer.  It’s a simple concept that has proven to be very successful in areas of the world with high usage, especially on a hyperlocal level.

Maybe I’m missing something here, which is why I ask you, the reader, to fill me in on why you think proximity marketing has fallen into obscurity.  Lack of bluetooth penetration? Lack of overall interest? Lack of education?  Take a moment and sound off in the comments.

The survey, conducted in November 2009 in seven countries on three continents, found consistently low levels of interest in making person-to-person payments via the mobile phone.  The survey polled subscribers, equally divided by gender, in Germany, France, the UK, the US, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea.  In all, about 200 respondents participated from each country.

The overall results showed that only 16% of Western Europeans surveyed considered themselves “extremely” or “very” interested in mobile P2P payments, while in the United States, the percentage was only 9%.  Consumers in the three Asia Pacific countries showed much greater interest, however, at 34% overall.  “It’s tough to make a convincing case for mobile P2P in most developed markets,” explained senior analyst Mark Beccue.  ”We believe it will have minimum impact in these markets because some forms of electronic P2P such as PayPal have operated there for several years with relatively low market penetration; and because these markets boast extensive ATM and banking networks, giving consumers easy access to cash to conveniently conduct P2P transactions.”

In developing markets, however, the results would be far different, says Beccue.  “In parts of Africa, Asia, and Latin America which generally lack good tools for convenient P2P transactions other than face-to-face, mobile payment methods will be huge.”

While it’s somewhat surprising that there’s an apparent lack of interest in mobile payments in the US and Europe, I think it differs greatly from consumer’s interest in mobile commerce in general.  While interest in direct person-to-person payments might not be what many expect, interest in other forms of mobile commerce, such as in-app purchases and commerce-related calls-to-action in mobile marketing, will much greater.  Still, the research sheds an interesting light on mobile payments in areas of the world that should be embracing it more than ever.