The whole area of advertising is very polarising. Professionals in the mobile industry are either very interested in creating services that serve ads to mobiles or they are quite against it. For example, there are services out there that serve ads on mobile websites, such as AdMob who has served over 25 billions ad impressions. Nokia has a whole division (called Nokia Interactive and centered around the team that joined from Enpocket), so the company must think there’s an opportunity. And, advertising giant, Google, is putting some muscle behind their mobile advertising efforts.
Detractors of mobile advertising point to the personal nature of devices, the small screen and battle for attention, and also fear a constant pinging of advertising, since the device is always in the pocket, unlike a desktop computer you can walk away from.
Advertising on mobile has been and will continue taking many forms, ranging from links and banners on mobile sites to pop-up advertising integrated into the phone interface to ads that appear based your own context. And as devices become more powerful and more connected with web services, and as the number of mobile device users rise to ever larger numbers, mobile service companies will have an ever stronger interest in exploring advertising options on mobiles.
As Cat Keynes said in a very interest mobile advertising industry observation:
And, while this sounds like a great business opportunity, I am sure Nokia will take into deep consideration the sensibilities of the users.
Have you ever seen an ad on your mobile? What did you think of it? What benefits will you get out of ads on you mobile devices? Are there any fears? Let us know.
Image from Montrasio International