Editorials

While cofounder Bill Gates stepped away from the CEO’s job in 2000, handing over the day-to-day running to lieutenant Steve Ballmer, he cannot be blind to the obvious: his legacy is about to be undone. Unless Microsoft gets its product and customer focus right, it will wither on the vine.

Discussions around mobile in 2013 should no longer focus only on technology or marketing, but include a harsh reality about to hit marketers.

Extreme leniency from Wall Street, venture capitalists and angel investors in the past two decades has enabled flights of fancy and the launch of ventures that would never have lasted a year in the pre-Internet era.

As mobile and online commerce has grown, kids have become comfortable and, in some cases, more so than their parents in purchasing goods online. This is why a gap has emerged.

Most dialogue within marketers and retailers focuses on how to tap new technology and marketing to hang on to consumer relationships. What they should be discussing is the sea-change in consumer behavior expected in the next three to five years.

Stories have been, and still are, the most persuasive tools in the arsenal of human communications. Why?

It is not just about team colors, beer and finger foods anymore. This year, many eager football fans will add one more thing to their Super Bowl party to-do list: downloading apps.

Mobile is poised to revolutionize media less than a decade after the desktop Web demolished long-established business models. How will mobile channels such as apps influence media’s future?

With the economy on the mend – gullible enough to believe the data – it’s time for luxury brands to get out of hibernation and seriously launch mobile marketing and commerce efforts.