AT&T and ShopAlerts - Confessions of a Geo-Location Shopaholic

Never ask of money spent

Where the splendor thinks it went.

Nobody was ever meant

To remember or invent

What he did with every cent.

Robert Frost, The Hardship of Accounting

The recent news coming out of the Telecom Provider AT&T heralds what is effectively a first anywhere in the world: Geo-Location based advertising, quaintly named ShopAlerts. This wonder of advertising as announced in the articles entitled “AT&T to send text ads to phones based on Location”, published Monday February 28, 2011 2:55 pm ET by PETER SVENSSON, AP Technology Writer, Yahoo! News and repeated in the article “AT&T ShopAlerts texts Location-based promos”, published February 28, 2011 7:09 AM PST by Lance Whitney, Digital Media - CNET News.

Great, cheeky Americans exclaim sarcastically, just what my souped-up dual core smartphone needed: Location-based pop-up ads! John Public, a Jamaican, smiles his wry sneaky smile, knowing full well that the FCC (Federal Communication Commission) is now bundling Geo-Location with 911 Services on mobile phones, whether of not they are GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) capable.

Referred to as Enhanced 911, it allows Law Enforcement agencies to pinpoint the exact Location of callers to the 911 Service should there be a case where speaking would compromise the persons safety.

A service that is US Government sponsored, it thus doesn’t surprise me, therefore, that Telecom Provider AT&T would spin around and try to make revenue via advertising from its Geo-Location enabled Telecoms Database which is already being used to provide this Public Service in the name of Law Enforcement.

Not to mention the fact that it is part of their push to expand their presence in the M2M (Machine-to-Machine Business) as stated in my Geezam Blog article entitled “NFC and M2M - Cashless Society and the Internet of Things” and  neatly summarized in my blog article entitled “AT&T, NFC and M2M  Cashless Society and the Internet of Things”.

Either this is the reason, or Telecom Provider AT&T has, like Carlette Deleon aka the Pet Tales Chick aka “Dilly” of Television Jamaica fame, been sniffing up and about my blog.

Indubitably, they may have stumbled across my blog articles on my unique Mobile Social Network concept powered by Geo-Location named Brown Dawg, so neatly summarized in my blog article entitled “RIM, Telecom Providers and the Rise of Mobile Commerce - Free Willy Blackberry”.

Not to mention a great way to get rid of all those Blackberrys people are throwing away as they step up to a real smartphone, be it the Apple iPhone or something with an Android slant as opined in my blog article entitled “Apple iOS 4 vs Google Android - Blackberry Shot the Sheriff”.

Thus, Simone Clarke-Cooper aka “Tiger-Bone Simone” will not be the only Television Jamaica personality who gets to ill-treat her BB!!! Spotted: Simone “Tiger-Bone” Clarke-Cooper on Smile Jamaica on Television Jamaica up in arms about Bounti Killa "Follow the Arrow" bottle throwing incident at “Follow de Arrow”.

I love YouTube !

Or…..or….maybe Telecom Provider AT&T really had it in mind to purchase FourSquare as slyly suggested by CNET Blogger Matt Asay in his essay entitled “Time for AT&T to buy FourSquare”, published April 26, 2010 9:14 AM PDT by Matt Asay The Open Road - CNET News.

So this new service, ShopAlerts, is Telecom Provider AT&T’s way of throwing their hat into the lucrative Geo-Location advertising market. It is also a thus move away from being a “dumb pipe” carrying data as opposed to making money from Content and Data Hosting services. The true origin of their concept is irrelevant, as the trend that started with FourSquare is now caught on even with a major American Telecom Providers.

After all, FaceBook CEO Mark Zuckerberg saw it as being lucrative enough to throw his hat in the ring, investing heavily in FaceBook Places, which was aimed at Google Latitude and its slew of Location based recommendation services as stated in the article “FaceBook Places take aim at Google”, published August 19, 2010 1:18 PM PDT, by Tom Krazit, Relevant Results - CNET News.

Whatever the reason (I personal think it’s me!!!!), this bodes well for advertising and Telecoms Providers, as if this “clicks” with Americans generally wary of Geo-Location base services, it could mean:

1. Cheaper phones, mainly subsidized by advertising being offered not only by Telecom Providers but even by Third-Party companies branded with their personal advertising. Ahem, oh Google!?
2. Increased profitability for advertisers, as the target market is guaranteed and can be easily identified and is a sure-fire Rewards System to attract customers
3. Better use of the “Like” Button statistics, as it can be used to pitch the phone user deals on products that resonate directly with them.
4. This would be a source of revenue for customers as well and effectively would be paying people to click on advertising on their smartphones as suggested in my blog article entitled “Broadcasting and Facebook - Simon and Simone Pig Farm” and “Broadcasting and Facebook - Where in Jamaica is Regina Beaver”.
5. Television could also benefit, as SMS could be sent to gauge if a user was watching a particular television show at a particular time so as to push advertising to that target demographic as stated in my blog article entitled “Google AI and Broadcasting - Minority Report”.

That last bit is VERY likely, Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009) Style. Especially as FaceBook is now monetizing comments via Geo-Location base comments in its FaceBook Places Platform as stated in the article “FaceBook's Next Big Media move: Comments”, published January 31, 2011 12:57 PM PST by Caroline McCarthy, The Social - CNET News.

Local Telecom Big Three (3) Telecoms Providers, Big Three (Broadcasters and Big Three (3) Banks and struggling businesses in Jamaica, where were you caught napping as Geo-Location took hold in the United States of America?