As you already know mobile phones are quickly becoming a staple for consumers to find and gather data quickly. Why? Because the information is always in their hands. With that being said 2010 should be the year you begin testing mobile marketing if you haven’t already done so. Here’s why:
Within the last couple of months alone, Apple, Google, and Microsoft have invested well over $1B on the mobile marketing industry.
• In November, Google purchased AdMob, a mobile advertising network, for $750M.
• Just last week, Google launched the Nexus One, an iPhone-like smartphone. This follows the release of Android, of course, which runs some of the new smartphones like Motorola’s Droid.
• Apple, trying to stay one step ahead of Google, went after Google’s ad business by purchasing Quattro Wireless for close to $300M. Similar to AdMob, Quattro is a mobile advertising company that serves 4 billion ad impressions a month on smartphones.
Apple more than likely will build the ad-serving technology into the iPhone platform to ensure it owns the ad market on the ever-present iPhone.
• Through Bing Mobile, Microsoft has also been investing heavily on search, location and mCommerce tools.
All these acquisitions have to mean something. It’s not chump change. Coming from companies that typically dictate where the market is heading don’t bet against the mobile marketing movement.
The quicker you move into mobile advertising today, you will be a step ahead of your competitors as all companies turn to mobile marketing in the not-to-distant future.
