I just purchased a iPad and iPhone Touch following a harrowing time getting my aged Nokia E71 to help manage my meetings at San Francisco.
There’s one thing that’s evident – unlike the PC, where I accepted waiting and delays, the mobile is more immediate – I want results, NOW! I’m on the mobile for a purpose.
To put the rest of this post to context, I invite you to step a small step back, to understand the mayhem that is about to dawn on us : Apple and Google have created a new ecosystem for applications, tools, platforms that has not been seen since the 90s when Microsoft led the pack. Consider this : today, there are millions of existing Windows shareware and paid applications to do accounting, charting, games, but, none work on these new platforms ! They need to be, and are being, rebuilt, by 100s of new start-ups. Even PC-style video ads need to be reformatted for the iOS 🙂
With the mayhem outlined, lets return to the “Mobile is immediate, PC is idle” view point.
Today’s high-paying advertising on the web comes from video ads. They are based on the premise of blocking content for a fixed time, and serving the user regular impressions.
This does not lend to the immediate nature of the mobile device.
Advertising for the mobile device is going to have to be more transactional (location-based) and even offer-based. (It’s becoming clearer why Google wanted to purchase a Groupon.) Imagine a application called PayForMe that you install on your device, and anytime you are about to book a movie ticket on your mobile, it prompts you with alternate offers to pay for the tickets.
Another implication of mobile-is-not-for-waiting is also that, subscription-based mobile portals will work. Consumers would be willing to pay for access to their content quicker.
For India in 2011-2012, if we consider that the smartphones are going to be bought by a certain strata of the economy, who are connected, who are bombarded by advertising everywhere they go , focusing on the transactions than the impressions is going to be key.