2008 Predictions: Marketing and Advertising Smartphones
by Ewan Spence
What’s going to happen in 2008 is going to be this… every smartphone manufacturer is going to proclaim that they have the fastest selling smartphone of it’s class in history. We might even see certain manufacturers shouting about the fastest adoption, the greatest rise in market share… blah… blah… blah…
Yes I can confidently predict that the marketing of smartphones and highly spec’ed out feature phones (here’s looking at you, Apple) will cloud over the reality of the situation just enough to cast their brand or device as the next coming. And you know what? I’m going to be pleased to see that.
After all, if we’re in a marketplace awash with marketing data, where companies are sniping over every customer, over every feature list bullet point, over store signage, that can mean only one thing… The idea of a smartphone is embedded in the public consciousness. While PR and marketing are going to be spending more and more money on their device, the first big hurdle will already have been overcome. In much the same way as you don’t see advertising on why you need a games console at home, you just see advertising on why you need this specific games console, the rubicon has been crossed.
Smartphones will be mainstream.
All that remains is for the market to decide which smartphone is the one. And that’s where it’s going to be handed over to the marketing department, that’s when it’s going to get interesting, that’s when it’s time to look at the small prints in the advertising.
So my first mobile messaging prediction? 2008 - the year that smartphone advertising gets vicious.
