Affle reportedly  announced that it had been received the Product Innovation Award from Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert) for its product, SMS2.0. This award recognizes Affle’s contributions to the mobile application and advertising markets.

Traditionally, the Frost & Sullivan Innovation Award is given to the company that successfully illustrates its superiority in bringing about cutting edge products and technologies within the operating borders of their industry. Frost & Sullivan placed emphasis on several parameters including the uniqueness of the offering, the capability of it to take advantage of popular technologies, the range of value added benefits given to clients, the enhancement in consumer value and the ability of the company to acquire new customers, while deciding on the award.

Affle SMS2.0 was created using peer-to-peer messaging via a next generation messaging application. The application strives to gather the customers’ attention using an SMS screen. Affle SMS2.0 improves overall consumer experience by delivering a custom made and non-obtrusive messaging experience. It incorporates popular features like MMS, instant messaging and email; thus, it often serves as a stepping stone into the mobile internet space for most consumers.

Its popularity can be gauged from the quick rate at which they have been adding subscribers and service providers. Five of the nation’s biggest telecom service providers have signed on with Affle to deliver enhanced messaging services to their customers.

SMS2.0 has also helped operators increase their revenues in two channels- advertising and content. Because the application can provide targeted and interactive content to users, it boasts of a higher click through rate than most other forms of online media. This results in higher rates of advertiser stickiness and increased revenues.

 “Due to lack of clarity on monetization, peer-to-peer messages, which form the maximum share of messages exchanged in the country, has been a segment largely left untapped,” Girish Trivedi, deputy director of the ICT practice for South Asia and Middle East at Frost & Sullivan, said in a statement. “With focus on non-intrusive, interactive, and contextual marketing, integrated messaging experience and compatibility with a wide range of end user terminals, Affle SMS2.0 has created a new model for mobile advertising, which is now being well received by subscribers and operators."

SMS2.0 has been described as an important innovation that has revolutionized conventional SMS applications. Consumers can make use of a mix of rich messaging with interesting features like colors and emoticons along with a mobile internet interface that displays relevant content and search results free of cost.

Popularized first by Bharti Airtel (News - Alert), this new-age business model now finds application by several leading service providers across the world. Frost & Sullivan further states that SMS2.0 is today the leading mobile channel and its popularity is increasing with rising adaption rates among operators, advertisers and subscribers.

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