Listen in on any conversation in the wireless industry, or one about cellphones in general, and the iPhone is bound to pop up sooner than later. The device has changed how digital marketers can leverage a rich media experience on a handheld, but it also presents some inherent challenges that have to be kept in mind.
While so much chatter about Apple's trailblazing mobile device is gushingly positive, iMedia decided it was time to play devil's advocate and determine where the iPhone's marketing power is overhyped.
The device has turned developers -- working in their basement -- into millionaires overnight, yet the marketing return is nowhere near the scale needed for larger campaigns.
"I think that brands need to resist being knee-jerk in terms of wanting the shiny new toy and really ask if this is the right thing for them," Adam Kleinberg, CEO of Traction, tells iMedia. "It has to add value. It doesn't have to use all the features, but it has to provide value."
Currently, the marketing opportunities presented on the iPhone platform lie in branded applications and unique ad-supported models, which vary greatly in terms of meeting the objective.
Climbing toward scalability
Study after study highlights the incredible web usage driven by the device. Nearly every report indicates iPhone users comprise more than half of all mobile web traffic in the U.S. Traffic is great, but the scale marketers can reach through the device needs to approach 25 to 30 million users before it starts making sense, according to some digital marketing experts.
By most estimates, the number of iPhones in use is at least halfway to that count, but still a ways off from reaching the saturation target.
In January, the iPhone had about 1.1 percent market share worldwide, says Alec Andronikov, chief mobilizer at MoVoxx. That makes it difficult to reach enough scale to justify spending the majority of your budget on an iPhone app.
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