Apple's iPad
Mobile wireless devices, such as the iPad and Kindle, are challenging the mobile and online advertising ecosystems.
After Steve Jobs proclaimed the “[the iPad]…is so much more intimate than a smartphone…,” he raised the definition of a mobile device and the role of mobile ad networks, ad agencies, wireless carriers and online advertising companies, including Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search advertising firms.
Mojiva, for example, a company that targets smartphone advertisers and publishers, announced its support for Apple’s new tablet computer within days after Jobs spoke. Quattro Wireless, recently purchased by Apple, is also interested in boosting mobile ad network advertising revenues with the iPad.
Mobile Marketing, Advertising and Emerging Wireless Devices
Emerging mobile and wireless technologies directly challenge the power of wireless carriers, mobile aggregators and regulators such as the FCC. For example, mobile advertisers currently must rent or buy short codes issued and managed by carriers and aggregators, to mount an SMS advertising campaign on mobile phones.
But the non-wireless version of the iPad and other emerging wireless devices don’t necessarily connect through mobile carriers. Wi-Fi networks, growing rapidly within homes and businesses, eliminate the need for wireless carriers entirely with the exception, perhaps, of WiMax, a broadband wireless service. This opens the door for marketers and advertisers to mount advertising campaigns without the involvement of mobile operators, aggregators and others in the current mobile and advertising ecosystems.
Mobile Advertising Standards and Regulations for the Future
Bypassing wireless carriers doesn’t relieve marketers and advertisers from best practices and standards and regulations already established for Internet and mobile advertising. Google, Yahoo and other search advertisers have already created R&R’s to use their services and other regulations controlling spam are already in place.
As new mobile devices reach the market, changes in best practices will, undoubtedly, become necessary. The IAB, Mobile Marketing Association, Direct Marketing Association and others will need to review changing mobile marketing and advertising standards.
While the future is promising for new, innovative mobile and wireless products, the market place, industry, professional associations and regulators must adapt standards to meet the changing mobile ecosystem.
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