The big talk in mobile marketing circles today (at least the circles I occupy) is the new mobile services platform introduced by Cisco.
The Cisco 3300 Series Mobility Services Engine – a “pizza box-shaped piece of equipment with specialized mobile software” – enables customers to link a local network, like one operated by a small business, with a much larger outside cellular network. Although Cisco had an admittedly weak posturing in mobile marketing during recent years, the new platform has people talking – exactly the goal of the mobile marketing gurus now toiling inside the walls of Cisco.
Much like the contemporary objectives of rival top-name technology companies, Cisco intends to make available their platform to “third-party developers,” which, as analysts have already weighed in, marks a major milestone and change of tone for what is a traditionally closed-off network equipment world. Needless to say, Cisco is banking on its new approach and more open approach to facilitate new sources of revenue in the future.
