Push Notification- The new, better, text message?

Urban Airship has a new blog post today announcing their 10 Billionth Push Notification.  The post  also mentions a Forrester Research piece titled:  The New Messaging Mandate.  I have not purchased the Forrester study but both are timely in that we are coming off a year that is widely being called a turning point in Mobile, especially with the rise of Apps.

• In November, Nielsen noted that as of the 3rd Quarter of 2011,  43% of U.S. wireless subscribers now own Smartphones.
• This week, Flurry posted on their blog that, as of December 2011, Mobile App Usage now accounts for  94 minutes/month vs. 72 minutes for the web.   

As we move towards Mobile Apps becoming more and more mainstream, there is a solid argument to look at Push Notifications as a key piece of a Marketing Communication Strategy.   Especially when that message can take the form of something more than text.   As we put ourselves in a consumers shoes, we have remember how we continuously choose to juggle the various forms of communication we receive.   In addition to email, Facebook, voicemail & text, the notification tray on Android and Notification Center on iOS are becoming the new form of communication that seems to rival, and at times, exceed the urgency of the text message.   As we view this new "inbox" with more and more credibility, marketers need to adjust their communication accordingly and understand where this form of communication falls with their fans/customers/users.   Below is the Infographic published by Urban Airship in their march to 10B push Notifications.   It would be interesting to see an overall number of Push Notifications to date across all platforms & apps and how that compares to overall text messages.

Push vs. Text

I have been holding on to this article: Confessions of a Push Notification Convert | ClickZ  for the past few weeks as I thought about the potential of text messaging slowly being taken over by push notifications in the coming years.  The above article has a great list of reasons why Push Notifications are currently important to Marketers :

• Rich media-friendly, unlike email. You can send video, audio, forms, and maps.
• Lower cost and better tracking than SMS.
• No cost to the customer for rich media, unlike MMS.
• It's not regulated by the FCC or the FTC because it is entirely permission based.
• Can target to events and times when most users use your app.
• Can notify users when a message is waiting, creating an in-app inbox.
• Can incorporate users' location to deliver relevant content.
• Marketer-friendly interface for campaign setup, send, and reporting. Little IT support is needed.

 

I held on to the link for this article because I thought it was worth mentioning that Push Notifications could very well become the new text message. With the emergence of smartphones and the cost of utilizing Push vs. a text campaign (of course, you have to have an app, a base of users etc.), the lane is open for Push Notifications to become a Marketer's prime means of communicating to customers, fans, followers etc. As smartphone penetration hits the masses, the messaging system becomes easier to adopt and, at some point, text may be ignored in favor of hitting the majority of the audience through Push- especially given the cost. While, at this time, Push Notifications do not support the two-way messaging aspect of text, directing the "Pushee" to respond on a Mobile Optimized site or some other method could be just as effective. I have a feeling that the tipping point is coming- many brands are willing to optimize a mobile site for the iPhone only or create an App only for iOS so it will be an easy choice for them to ignore their non-smartphone audience and commit to messaging them only through Push Notifications.