Mobile marketers will be paying close attention to Apple’s iPhone OS 4.0 preview event this Thursday morning.
On the heels of the official word of the new iPhone OS, we’re now hearing rumblings about all that the upgrade will entail. Citing personal sources within Apple, Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu acknowledged Tuesday that the iPhone will be “a full multi-tasking environment where third-party apps will also be able to run simultaneously and/or in the background along with AAPL’s own apps.”
Thursday is also believed to be the occasion in which Apple will officially unveil its new mobile advertising platform dubbed “iAd.” And while there is little indication that Thursday will bring with it the announcement of a Verizon iPhone, on Tuesday, Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg admitted he told Apple that he wants Verizon to get the iPhone. Some are taking this revelation as a heads up about a forthcoming Apple-Verizon deal in time for the 4th gen iPhone to debut most likely in mid summer.
Mobile marketers, however, realize that in the big picture, Thursday’s announcement(s) could prove significant for the digital advertising world. Shaw Wu, in fact, observed in his note to investors that the new OS will be far more integral for the iPad than it is for the iPhone due to the iPad’s “much faster processor and much larger screen where users will more likely want the capability to run multiple applications much like most do with their PCs and Macs.”
