The short-term impact will be immediate, as advertisers are yearning to break free from the constraints of current mobile advertising. This change refers to limitations of current mobile application development platforms, such as BREW. While many programmers complained when Steve Jobs announced that the iPhone will only take third-party applications developed for Safari -- Apple’s proprietary web browser -- this still allows programmers to leapfrog current offerings. Web 2.0 applications that run on the current Safari browser will be viable for the iPhone.
The first such offering optimized for the iPhone is "OneTrip," a web-based shopping application. As other apps emerge, they are sure to offer suggestions for alternative products based upon shopping or browsing behavior. Admittedly, much of this performance is contingent upon the speed of the iPhone’s EDGE connection, which has not received rave reviews at this time. Though other smartphones offer good browsers, such as Opera Mobile, I still contend that power business users are much less likely to look to their phones for rich mobile internet browsing. They will still prefer to access information from more efficient, less engaging WAP sites.
However, the iPhone is not totally in step with the increasingly sophisticated push-pull technologies used by mobile marketers to reach consumers on the move. Over the past few years, most U.S. users have become adept at using SMS (Short Message Service) capabilities on their phones. "American Idol" has been identified as the tipping point in the U.S. for its massive use of SMS for voting and interacting with the program. Marketers have developed opt-in databases of customers whom they communicate with via SMS for promotional opportunities. Users have complained that the iPhone succumbed to AT&T's revered revenue stream of charging for each SMS and not allowing iChat on the phone. Elsewhere, the iPhone starts to stray from emerging uses of mobile advertising in its lack of MMS (Multimedia Message Service). Some of the most acclaimed advertising campaigns from last several years were MMS-enabled, whereby users could upload their pictures via MMS to outdoor boards. According to its technical specifications, the iPhone does not have this capability.
What this means for marketers and advertisers
In the final analysis, can the iPhone be a category killer for current mobile advertising?
Yes. As consumers become accustomed to sophisticated browsing and coverage increases to combat slow connections, the days of the simple WAP banner and mobile links are numbered. This isn’t to say that consumers won’t readily click on links and banners that are relevant to their searches, but simplified versions offered by AdMob and Enpocket are going to lose their luster quickly.
The premise that the internet experience cannot be ported over to a phone is losing its validity. It is true that ads will need to be modified for a phone environment, but the distinction will become less apparent. Much of mobile advertising is based upon relationships with the carriers, who feel that they own the customer experience. Apple’s relationship with AT&T will bear out the true owner of the mobile experience beyond voice transmission. With its Web 2.0 capabilities to take the user from browsing to buying, the iPhone will go a long way to eliminate the need for third-party vendors to manage the "soup to nuts" mobile marketing experience.