Fontera, a local mobile development company, has entered the mobile business market in Atlanta, as part of the company`s plans to grow its international operations.
The firm, established in 2003, operates its development business from Cape Town.
"Atlanta has the highest mobile penetration of all US cities, is regarded as the second best city to do business in the US and is the second fastest growing city in the US," says Simon Leps, Fontera marketing director.
"Atlanta is also in the top 10 cities in terms of mobile users. It is the biggest city in the South East US and allows us access to the rest of the US.
"We plan on opening offices in other areas, including New York City and San Francisco, at a later stage. Our business potential is not limited to Atlanta; we see it as the US as a whole and intend to be doing in excess of $1 million per year in turnover in our second year here."
Leps says his company`s research indicates that 63% of the 18 to 27 age group in the city uses text messages on a regular basis, as does 31% of the 28 to 39 age group, 18% of the 40 to 49 age group and 10% of the 50+ age group.
"The US is basically following the same trends as SA did about three years ago. The premium-rate SMS is still new and only used by the early adopters. Most people are still using bulk SMS and alerts type products and the market is still far from being mature.
"A lot of people now only have mobile phones and not landlines. The US mobile market is still targeted at people who have a decent credit rating so prepaid is not a big market as yet. This is starting to change with providers like Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile," says Leps.
"We are also targeting other players in the SMS industry so that they license our software, as with Advanced Telecom in Philadelphia and Spark Network Services in Chicago. Later on this year, we will launch our own consumer portal, which will deliver ringtones and mobile content directly to the end-user."
Leps says the timing is perfect as the US has, until now, been fairly hesitant to adopt the wave of mobile applications that Europe has been using for months.
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