When we look at the discussion happening around monetizing content on the web, payment models from the likes of the Wall Street Journal, Consumer Reports and Apple’s iTunes are the successes that are most often held aloft as potential saviors for an entire industry of producers. But no one seems to be talking about the quiet successes of cellphone providers and mobile content creators. Consumers are increasingly using their mobile devices to download everything from games to ringtones and often for a price, yet no one seems to be complaining about not being able to get them for free. Why is this?
Long before the internet provided a go-to source of up to the minute information from weather to sports scores, the phone companies offered these services and simply charged us for them. Unknowingly perhaps, they were conditioning us to accept the notion of pay-for premiums, but more importantly, they also made it easy. These kinds of transactions required no additional steps to complete – the extra charges simply showed up on our next bill – meaning no deterrent to use and no time to think about whether or not this was a worthwhile way to spend our money. The in-home impulse purchase was born. And the same is true today, except there’s a whole lot more that we can buy and now we can do it from anywhere.
While the ease of transaction (a one time credit card entry or an add-on to the bill) has lowered the obstacles to buying, this still doesn’t explain why the same services that people expect to get for free when they’re sitting at their computers, they’ll willing pay for when they’re on their phones. Mobile culture has given us the freedom to remain connected no matter where we are. And as the technology has improved, that has translated into being able to perform increasingly complex functions from our phones. Which is to say, we enjoy the convenience and we’re more open to the idea of paying for it. When we’re sipping our latte at the local coffee shop and want to hear our favorite song, we might not be as willing to wait for it as we are when we’re home surfing the internet and might be able to find the mp3 online and download it for free. There’s an immediacy that we’ve come to rely upon and for many of us, that’s worth an extra fee.
With the near ubiquity of mobile devices – people of every conceivable socio-economic class typically have one – our cell phones have become an extension of our public personas. Our mobile device is a status symbol ripe for customization as we attempt to stand out from the pack. Sure, thousands of people can own the iPhone, but only those willing to pay premiums for the coolest applications can have access to them. And while the price point for entry into the club remains small, this idea of exclusivity can’t be discounted as a fleeting trend, especially considering the size of the market up for grabs (experts predict users ” to spend $13 billion on downloads to their phones in 2012, up from $2.8 billion this year.”)
Though many of these lessons are unique to the culture of the cellphone and can’t be transferred directly to the online space, understanding consumer behavior in general – finding what people are willing to pay for and why – and examining these successes is necessary as content producers continue to experiment with various models on the web.
NY Times: Micro-Billing, Byte by Byte, Suits the World of Cellphones
[image via Geekologie]
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