After my video explaining the Super Bowl Mobile Ads and Mobile Misses I got an email from a gentleman who had seen the video. He was politely curious why I was so “anti-iPhone” in the video. Confused, I emailed him back to ask him why he thought I was against the popular and amazing device.
To his mind because I mentioned the need for a mobile specific website which is not needed on an iPhone (because, as he pointed out to me, they can effectively browse a full sized site) I was pitted against it. “Not true” I told him. I wish that everyone had a device with advance mobile browsing capabilities like an iPhone. The world of mobile marketing would open up like a tulip in spring.
If consumers everywhere had a G1, a Palm Pre or an iPhone the role of mobile marketing professionals would shift from mobile convincers (“Yes, you really do need to jump into mobile marketing” ) to mobile implementers (“Here’s how to effectively reach your customers on mobile”). It would be a no brainer.
So, am I anti-iPhone? No way. Do I realize that despite momentous sales figures iPhone users are still a small minority of all cell phone users. Smart mobile marketers must accommodate the majority of their potential customers.
For this reason I advise businesses who know that their entire customer base is not an iPhone user to plan accordingly. Don’t just build an iPhone friendly site. Make sure it works on as many other devices as possible. And, remember text messaging. Mobile marketing is more than just the mobile web. Text messaging is the universal mobile marketing tool.
