This evolution has made way for the emergence of new applications such as FourSquare, Yelp and GoWalla, as pointed out by Jeremiah Owyang. So what can these mobile social networks do to tap into this new market that’s harnessing these new tools?

FourSquare, the local-based social network, for example, has been offering discounts based on people’s physical  locations, and therefore, serving up ads on businesses and shops nearby the identified location of the person.

“We should expect FourSquare to evolve and eventually offer advertisements based on your friends’ interests — John, Amy, and Allen all like Los Taqaritors, invite them now for a 20% off discount,” commented Owyang. “Location-based ads will soon connect with social information.’”

Another good tip Owyang mentioned was that consumers should consider using RedLaser, a tool which provides users with the cheapest prices on products by allowing consumers to scan the product’s barcode. In other words, consumers can run a price comparison on the product of desire and make up their minds as to whether to get it at a different store or online depending on the offer.

Owyand then leaves businesses and marketers with a set of recommendations to consider in order to be prepared for this evolution of the adoption of mobile social networks by consumers. And they are the following:

* Listening In For Free Research: Local businesses should immediatly montior their brands on mobile social networks like Yelp and FourSquare.  Use this information as free research: find out the perception of customers opinions both good –and bad to learn about their market.
* Responding To Reviewers: Use negative information as a way to improve products and services and let your community know you’re listening to their feedback.  Although there are always two-sides to any complaint use these same tools to respond to customers in public, but be sure to abide by the terms of service.
* Rewarding Top Customers: Customers that frequently patron your store and tell others on these mobile social networks should be rewarded.  Build both in person and online relationships with them so they’ll continue to advertise and market on your behalf.  Free drinks anyone?
* Preparing for pricing impacts and positioning: With disruptive tools like RedLaser appearing, customers can quickly find pricing of products and find them at nearby retailers.  Retailers like CVS, Walmart, Target, BestBuy, Safeway should take heed as consumers continue to become empowered through instant information.  Companies will need to respond by:  making product pricing more competitive, or offering other deals such as bundling, speed, time, or other value-based offerings.

Nielsen tells us that in the past year, the number of smartphone subscribers grew from 15 million in Q2 2008 to 26 million Q2 the following year.

In the UK, 55% of iPhone users and 34% of smartphone users have used web search, as opposed to 12% of total mobile phone users, according to data from Google’s Internet Stats page.

Today, it’s not the U.S. that’s leading the smartphone market, it’s Italy whose percentage of smartphone owners is 28%, followed by Spain who’s not lagging too far behind with 23%.

Markets with the most room to grow on smartphone penetration are France (11%), Canada (12%), UK (12%), Germany (12%) and Sweden (13%).

Nielsen stats also show us that smartphone owners continue to be predominantly male, are 65% more likely than the average mobile subscriber to be between the ages of 25 and 34.

Evidently, there’s great potential for growth in the mobile industry one aspect which marketers should not overlook as it represents a great marketing opportunity. More people are changing their habits and adopting these new technologies. More people than ever want to be connected and take the Internet with them at all times.

And Here Google Comes..Again

Google has released Android, a mobile phone open source development platform allowing third party developers to create applications for mobile devices. Speculation about Google entering the mobile phone market has been around for a while, with many a rumour in the past few years about a Google smart phone called the G Phone. This definitely seemed like the obvious market move for the internet giant to directly compete with the iPhone, Blackberries and all the other smart phones out there. But instead they chose the soft over the hard and are now, rather then competing, are looking to re-invent the mobile phone market.

Open Source is the Future

The idea of open source is nothing new for Google who have developed many open source apps for the online community. Using this open ethos for the mobile phone market could change the industry all together. An open source platform means that instead of having software developed for each phone or brand, software can be developed for all phones; new applications can be downloaded and enjoyed by any user. Instead of upgrading software through purchasing a new phone the user can continually upgrade through downloading the latest software and apps that suit them.

Why Should We Do It When You Can

The genius of the open source Android project is Google’s incentive scheme to promote application and software innovation. They have set a side a modest $10m to incentivise third party developers to create ‘cool’ new applications for the Android platform awarding the best developers with large sums of cash. So instead of having to internally invest in application creation Google employ the public so they can get on with more important tasks… like ensuring their advertising revenue and developing more strategies to dominate the future off and online media spaces.

Uh Oh!

The reaction to this development from Microsoft’s charismatic CEO Steve Ballmer was the expected one. He has remarked that Google’s efforts were just ‘words on paper’, but these words come from the same man who claimed Apple’s iPhone would not be a success, and literally laughed at the now revolutionary design. Microsoft and Apple definitely have something to fear with Google’s Android project. Through developing open source development for mobile devises instead of focusing on cashing in on hardware development Google have made a lot of mobile phone producer and mobile service provider friends.

The Google Alliance

Google’s development of Android is in partnership with the open hand-set alliance, 34 mobile handset makers, application developers, chip makers and mobile service providers who believe in the future of open source platforms. This alliance includes some huge names in the mobile devices world and is looking to directly compete with the independents (Apple, Microsoft, Nokia, Palm, Symbian) who have all developed their own operation platforms.

Behind the Openness

Of course the real winner here is Google. Sure, Mobile phone manufacturers can sell more phones, service providers may be able to charge higher tariffs, but for Google this will bring another mammoth flow of advertising revenue their way and help them secure their place as a major player in the mobile device market. The Android is another step in the Google generation direction and will add to the fears of those already weary of their size and future capabilities of the media giant, but as long as they continue to develop ground breaking ideas and keep their competition on their toes we can’t complain too much.