These days the World Mobile Congress is being celebrated in Barcelona, Spain. The mobile phone and smartphone industry is one of the most dynamic and profitable. According to many experts, 2012 is going to be a key year concerning this industry development, so it’s possible to identify some trends as far as mobile marketing and advertising are concerned.
Firstly, there’s been a tablet boom during the last year. iPad has been the most popular present of the last Christmas campaign and Kindle Fire has open the door to more affordable devices. It is expected that by end 2012 the number of tablets worldwide increases by more than 100%.
Another important issue is the fact that rich media (or interactive content) has gone massive, offering the consumer a more attractive experience and better branding opportunities for the advertisers.
On the other hand, traditional advertising is being switched to mobile advertising. Due to the high penetration rate of smartphones, mobile phone use will continue growing and expanding to new moments of consumption throughout the day, as for instance, during TV show breaks. That could mean that tablets and smartphones are steadily being used instead of PC’s or laptops.
The gradual obsolescence of feature phones is also a major issue. Smartphones are more and more affordable to any consumer, and as a result, advertising agencies are focusing their strategies on both smartphones and tablets.
Whether Smartphone applications are going to beat mobile web is also being highly discussed currently. There are a great number of analysts claiming that applications are the preferred way for consumers to use internet on their mobile phone. It is likely that this debate continues in 2012 and that we can see players making important decisions concerning this issue.
Geo-location services popularity is also increasing. It is likely that advertising dealing with geo-location increases in 2012. This trend is basically influence by the United States, where most of the supply of those services is focused right now. Advertising agencies will see an increasing demand for more campaigns with the objective to make consumers go to specific stores, restaurants or other locations.
Finally, Facebook has been procrastinating the launching of its mobile phone advertising services. Nevertheless, with about 1000 million users online and 300 checking out their profiles on their phones, Facebook ismeant to be a key player in the smartphone advertising industry.