Tech watchers were bummed last week when Research In Motion announced that for the current quarter, its margins will narrow and earnings will be lower than analysts had expected. The concern is that RIM, to keep up with the Joneses–er, Jobses–will have to spend more on its BlackBerry to ensure the device stays as technologically hip as any iPhone.

But I think the BlackBerry is a history-making position: Nailbiting, yes, but exciting too. True, as I’ve written before, Android is just one major force in changing smartphones for the better–meaning that device technology will allow for greater, more multi-channel marketing efforts than ever. And the iPhone is what proved that advanced, multi-media capabilities and services can indeed exist on a handset.

But RIM, with its BlackBerry, is the king of smartphone branding. Though techies preferred the Treo in 2004 and 2005, brand awareness for the RIM device back then was much keener among mainstream consumers. Both well-heeled teenagers and on-the-go executives have sported them–thus marketers with divergent audiences would do well to hone campaigns to BlackBerry users. Indeed, marketers have long fussed about the best way to reach audiences via BlackBerry email. Heck, “BlackBerry Thumb” and “CrackBerry” are all but AMA-accepted illnesses in today’s society.

So RIM has the means to maintain its position as the smartphone of all smartphones. It’s doing so already. In May we noted that the BlackBerry adopted many of the popular iPhone features, from a much more lush UI to more media options. And when I was at a local AT&T shop two weeks ago upgrading from my crappy first-gen RAZR, four people within an hour asked the salesperson if the new BlackBerrys were in yet.

RIM won’t go away. And that’s good news for marketers. With its features and branding, it will lead marketing opportunities for a wide variety of smartphone-users for device-generations to come.

Eydie Cubarrubia, Marketing Communications Manager, mobileStorm

“I’d rather you text me”

Email marketers big and small all face similar struggles when it comes to email delivery. Spam has meant ISPs are increasing their tightening of requirements and filtering of perceived unwanted messages. On the other hand, it’s common knowledge that email is one of the most effective mediums to get out marketing messages to your audience.

Not to mention unparalleled returns on investment. The Direct Marketing Association forecasts email ROI to be $45.65 for every $1 spent. In addition, a Datran Media survey showed that marketers found ROI to be 55.3 percent higher than other channels.

The email space may seem nebulous to many marketers, but the truth is that it can be simplified. The rules for successful electronic mailing are just one click away, thanks to mobileStorm’s series of digital marketing white papers. Whether you are currently using email or not, getting educated about responsible mailing will open doors and break down the barriers to entry for you and your brand.

To find out the ten most important must-knows regarding successful email delivery, download mobileStorm’s newest whitepaper: “The 10 Commandments of Email Delivery: Make It Into The Inbox.” For other white papers, go to this page.

Shaneli Ramratan, Director Of Marketing, mobileStorm

We’ve blogged several times about Android, Google’s open platform for mobile devices (read here and here and here). Android’s significance: Because it’s open, it will foster the creation of more applications–the best of which will rise to benefit consumers everywhere. This will then create exciting new ways to market to consumers via their cell phones.

Android is all about the big picture, not immediate gratification. But during this week’s debut of T-Mobile’s G1 handset–the first Android phone to go on sale–most people lost the plot. The common phrase is something like, “Well, it’s no iPhone,” Of course it’s not; because the phone isn’t about the hardware, it’s about the software. And what that software will be able to do in the future.

Even the most useful news piece I’ve seen on the G1–PC Magazine’s review of the device–inevitably compares the T-Mobile pseudo-Sidekick to Apple’s phone. While PC Mag’s story mostly points out the G1’s strengths over the iPhone–departing from most other reviewers–I still think it misses the point.

Which is this: The G1’s debut is important because it will get more programmers into the Android game, developing applications and creating improvements to the platform. I never thought the first handset would be much, because it will take at least a year to get out the bugs, soup it up, and present a shiny impressive second-gen handset that deserves praise.

Hey, kinda like the iPhone!

Eydie Cubarrubia, Marketing Communications Manager, mobileStorm
“I’d rather you text me

Most sites have a “links page”; you have probably seen it many times. It links to other resources on the Internet considered useful or relevant, or with which the site exchanged links. However, most of the links pages out there are done wrong. Completely wrong.

Why? They just list sites. That’s it. It’s a very long list, and the sites listed are sometimes irrelevant and useless. Because of this state of things, I’d like to offer tips on how your links page can be modified to look natural and be useful.

First, never actually call this page “Links.” Don’t even use the word—it’s a red flag for Google. Call it “Resources” or, because the latter word is also quite overused, come up with something else, like “Web Map,” “Online Center,” or “Interesting Sites.” Even better is to call it by the name of your niche and adding the word: “sites”, “resources” or “websites”; for example, you can call it “Digital Marketing Sites.”

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