Interesting, and alarming, interpretation of Verizon’s move to crank up their SMS rates by 3¢ per message:
http://tinyurl.com/48zy5h

Mobile Marketer predicts that Verizon’s rate hike could potentially bring down the domestic mobile marketing industry. I don’t feel educated enough to discredit this claim…but if it is true, then I scorn our country’s inability to take advantage of a marketing avenue most Asian nations have not only grasped, but made their primary marketing vehicle.

In Korea, for example, most retail outlets have a bluetooth transmitter that will pick up on the presence of an open mobile channel in their vicinity and use that channel to push a message to a person walking just outside their doors. So, a C-store, for example, can push a “Red Bull 99¢ today only” type message to me as I walk right past the entrance to the store.

I believe the issue is most likely a lack of regulation. Not that I am for MORE laws, but if the mobile marketing industry fell under some sort of regulation, it would be extremely difficult, even impossible, for a company like Verizon to deliver an industry-crushing blow like a 3¢ rate increase. It would enable mobile companies to focus more on creative solutions to marketing to its subscribers rather than making a few cents on each of text message.