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iPhone 6 – What it means for Australian marketers

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With all the fuss around any Apple device launch, it can be difficult to identify the facts from the hype. As marketers it’s important to be familiar with the opportunities presented by new technology. While new devices are launched every day, and smartphones with fancy new features are a dime a dozen, Apple’s annual smartphone launches tend to foreshadow future directions in mobile usage and consumer behaviour.

While Apple does not have the largest smartphone market share here or globally, their market power is significant, and the company’s ability to nail the next big thing is legendary. So what can we learn from the launch of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus and how does this impact us here in Australia?

Smartphones are Getting Bigger – Much Bigger.

OK so this is not exactly new. It has been apparent for some time that Australian customers prefer bigger screens and the launch of the iPhone 6 finally brings Apple in line with the size of most popular smartphones on the market today. While additional iPhone screen sizes mean marketers need to optimise content for these new screens, the trade off is that larger screens and improved screen resolution allow for higher quality rich media and video. Many Australian smartphone users have already upgraded to larger screened Android devices so that they can more comfortably watch video on their device.

iphone original-iphone-6-plus

Blast from the past. The comparatively tiny original iPhone next to the latest iPhone 6 plus. Photo credit: IBTimes/Luke Villapaz

 NFC mobile payment will happen – But not yet in Australia

Another big piece of news in the iPhone6 announcement was the inclusion, finally, of NFC within the device, as well as incorporating fingerprint security in the payment process. There is nothing revolutionary about including NFC in a mobile device. Numerous other smartphones already offer NFC based payments. What makes this interesting is that brands can now offer NFC services to iPhone users, and no longer need to create an alternative iPhone solution to make mobile payments work for everyone.  Brands holding off on mobile payments (waiting for a broader user base) will now be rushing to develop new services.

Apple’s announcement is a big deal for banks as well. Patrick Crooks from NFC Wireless believes that “Apple’s inclusion of Near Field Communication technology is a key pillar for the disruption of Australia’s payment market”. With Apple Pay, customers link a credit card to their device through iTunes or by taking a photo of the card. They can then pay using any of the tap and pay terminals in use by around 60% of Australian merchants. Here in Australia we have one of the highest rates of contactless payment availability in the world, compared to the US where only 2% of retailers support contactless payments.

But before we all get too excited, it’s important to note that Apple has not yet announced when Apple Pay will be available in Australia. For Apple Pay to work, local banks will need to partner with Apple so that their credit cards can be saved to the Apple Pay service. Although Apple has said it is ‘working hard to bring Apple Pay to more countries’ it remains to be seen whether Australia will be one of these.   While the high volume of conctactless transactions here may attract Apple to the Australian market, they may in fact prefer to target countries that do not already have the convenience of tap and go payments. After all, Apple Pay offers a huge benefit of convenience for customers that are still swiping, waiting and signing receipts, while customers in Australia may see little benefit in upgrading.

In the end, all of this may be irrelevant given that a Visa service which is not currently available here is required for making Apple Pay work in Australia. George Lawson, Visa’s head of emerging products and innovation has said the electronic token service required to enable Apple Pay’s secure transactons won’t be up and running in Australia until 2015. Known as Visa Token Service, the system codes each transaction into a single-use token, free from credit card details and personal information. This means your personal information is not transmitted with every purchase, a feature which is key to Apple’s vow of security and privacy at the core of it’s new Apple Pay service.

apple_pay_watch-580x387

Apply Pay Customers will simply scan their device (including the Apple Watch in 2015) in front of a pay wave terminal to process payments, with the launch of the NFC enabled iPhone 6.

 Wearables are the future – well actually, about a year away.

Apple’s announcement of the Apple Watch for launch in 2015, has cemented the world’s focus on smart watches and other wearables for the next 12 months. One reason for Apple to announce the stylish and customisable Apple watch 12 months early may be the hope that customers will stay loyal to their iPhone for device compatibility. Rather than operating as standalone devices, wearables tend to be accessories supported by a core device, with some of the best and most useful features managed from a smartphone or tablet. Apple’s announcement a year early establishes the valuable consumer ‘halo effect’ around the brand, plus it gives marketers plenty of time to prepare their Apple Watch strategy.

There are plenty of smart watches already on the market, and the Apple Watch doesn’t make any ground breaking changes to the general smart watch model. However, just as MP3 players had been around for years before Apple launched the iPod, it may be that some of the Apple Watch design features will be enough to trigger a similar kind of revolution in wearables. Analysts have suggested that Apple’s innovations in navigation and interaction may set up the market for the same kind of category tipping point that we saw with the iPod. Certainly the high quality and varied personalisation options for the watch and wrist band design will make the device appealing to a much broader audience.

Apple Watch

The Apple Watch, to launch in 2015 will appeal to the masses with a huge variety of styles, wristband designs, materials and colours.

Then there’s the Software Update (iOS8)

In parallel with the launch of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, owners of all iPhone models received access to the latest operating system software.  iOS8 offers some interesting new functions like sharing locations via Messenger and integration of Shazam features within Siri. Plus there’s HomeKit which enables controls for home lighting, locks and thermostats.  The following updates in iOS8 are of particular relevance to marketers:

In parallel with the launch of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, owners of previous iPhone models received access to the latest operating system software.  iOS8 offers some interesting new functions like sharing locations via Messenger and integration of Shazam features within Siri. Plus there’s HomeKit which enables controls for home lighting, locks and thermostats.  The following updates in iOS8 are of particular relevance to marketers:

New Content Notifications & Widgets

Previously when new content or features were added, marketers were limited in ways they could let customers know and bring them back to the app to explore further.  Now with enhanced notifications, alerts can be set for new content in an app, providing significant opportunities to bring customers back and maintain engagement.

Real Estate Widget in Notifications

The iOS8 update enables brands like Realtor.com to delivers content to users within their notification centre.

iOS8 has also introduced the option to design visually appealing widgets that appear when the screen locks or customers access their notification centre. Marketers can create compelling content to appear within these environments. The lock and notification screens are best suited to frequently updated content such as news, update functions or daily utilities that save the customer from repeatedly accessing an app or mobile site. While this strategy might keep the brand at top of mind it’s worth considering the impact this might have on app usage.

All of this means that marketers have additional incentives to develop strategies for regular updates of content, and it’s no surprise that many top brands are already exploring the possibilities.

Interactive Notifications

It used to be that customers could see notifications pop up on their phone, but then had to switch apps in order to respond. A nifty new feature allows customers to respond directly to notifications, which means greater opportunities to create a conversation with a customer in real time. Brands could send image or news updates, ask customers to comment or respond to surveys, sign up for alerts, provide feedback or make selections that tailor content. All of this interaction could happen within the notification centre, meaning customers don’t have to leave what they’re doing to engage with the branded content. Twitter has already rolled out their response to interactive notifications and no doubt plenty of other brands will jump on the bandwagon.

Fingerprint security in Apps

iOS8 makes it possible for app developers to incorporate Touch ID within an app design, which may reduce barriers to usage of certain apps such as mobile banking which require secure log in or personal data. For the moment however, given the newness of fingerprint security, most brands would be well advised to tread cautiously as customers are reluctant to give biometric data such as their fingerprint to any but the most trusted services.

More social sharing options

The latest iOS 8 update offers more options for social sharing in Safari or Chrome. Social sharing from these web browsers was previously limited to Facebook & Twitter as these brands had negotiated with Apple for inclusion within the platform. With this latest update, anyone can create a share extension which will be added to a customer’s web browser when they download an app. This means that other social networks will have the opportunity to expand their offering and brand reach. Opening up social sharing to multiple platforms means that more content will be shared more widely across a variety of social networks. It also means that brands have the option to install their own branded share button into their customers’ web browser so that content can be shared within a community.

No more Location Tracking using MAC addresses

Any marketers still using MAC address to track customers as they move between WiFi locations will have to update their strategy with iOS8. From now on, Apple will randomise MAC addresses (which are identifiers for hardware) every time a device connects to a new WiFi access point.   This means that customers cannot be tracked by their MAC address and then recognised when they appear at a location such as a store.  For more information about what this means, you might like to review our recent education piece about privacy and tracking Targeting Mobile – ID Please which was part of a series on Mobile Targeting that we published.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line for Australian Marketers is that while Apple’s iPhone 6 launch heralds big things fro Mobile Payments and Wearables. much of this won’t impact us until mid to late 2015.  What we can be sure of however, is that these changes are coming.  NFC payments by smartphone (and smartwatch) will be a thing and smartwatches are poised to become the next huge computing cycle.  As Mary Meeker so insightfully identified in her recent trend report, each new computing cycle delivers 10 times the installed base of the previous one, so we must be prepared for wearables to be huge – beyond all of our expectations.

In the short term, marketers have been handed a number of opportunities to engage more effectively with their customers via enhancements to the iPhone Operating System, which has already been installed on almost half of all iPhone devices already.

Finally, with Apple finally coming to the large screen party, we can expect to see bigger things (literally) from smartphone marketing.  High quality, engaging, rich media and interactive video should be the order of the day for Australian marketers.  Apple’s latest update is the nail in the coffin for smaller screen smartphones.  We appear to be moving in the direction of larger personal screens with small ‘accessory’ devices to support them.   This should be in the back of every marketer’s mind as they develop marketing and content strategies for the next 1 – 3 years.

 

The post iPhone 6 – What it means for Australian marketers appeared first on HAPTIC GENERATION.


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