Industry analyst performs primary and secondary market research within a particular segment of an industry, such as the developing mobile ecosystem, to determine accurate market descriptions, market trends, forecasts and models – according to Wikipedia. Typically, analysts specialise in a single industry, researching the broad development of the market rather than focusing on investments or financial opportunities.

BKI Media is a new breed of industry analyst.

We do much more than simply establishing whether the (often inflated) description and outlook of a proffered service or technology is accurate. BKI Media uses the services and technologies extensively to understand their advantages, shortfalls and how they will play in the tough, rapidly evolving, commercial environment. Put another way, BKI Media doesn’t take a vendor’s word for anything and our findings are backed by empirical evidence and wide experience.

BKI Media specialises in mobile search and what we call Mobile 2.0 – marketing (from SMS to coupons, vouchers and bar codes), advertising, social networking and communities, and recommendation. These are all new phenomena and will have a big impact both on the industry itself and on consumers’ individual behaviour as well as having wider social implications around the world: mobile will be the primary access to the Internet for billions of people.

This is exciting stuff, but this ecosystem is generating a great deal of hot air and hyperbole. BKI Media’s task is to separate the hype from the possible and realistic, by signing up for new services and testing mobile portals immediately.

This is a critical distinction.

There have been occasions this year when well-established industry experts have enthused about new services from Nokia and AOL, spawning many more blogs and news stories. Having tried, hard, to use both BEFORE writing about them, BKI Media was the lone voice that said the services were impossible to use, as indeed they were. In Nokia’s case, this was because the new version of the application wasn’t even available, due to an oversight.

BKI Media tests every service it evaluates. It focuses on the competitive nature of the service and ensures that the analytical results provide business and market intelligence.

The company was founded by the visionary industry analyst Bena Roberts who was joined by veteran telecoms journalist and editor Annie Turner BKI Media’s three core services are:

• The Mobile Search Analyst, 11 issues as year, web-based analytical reports, available only to subscribers*.

• Mobile 2.0 Analyst 11 issues as year, web-based analytical reports, available only to subscribers*.

• gomonews.com, a daily, edgy and insightful blog covering these core subjects (and any others that are pertinent to them) and attracts 300,000 unique hits per month. Within three months of its full launch in January, it had been acclaimed as one of the Best British Technology blogs and the daily newsletter is growing fast.

* BKI Media’s clients include Tier 1 and Tier 2 mobile operators, branded mobile search players and the lion’s share of the white label mobile search market, among others.

To purchase BKI Media intelligence or for a consultancy quote please contact bena@bkimedia.com

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