Free with ads or subscription?
November 15, 2007 by Jayvee Fernandez
Filed under 4G, Apps, Cell phone, Mobile 2.0, Mobile Monitor, Smartphone
Would you rather have to pay for a monthly subscription for phone services or would you rather grab a free service that is supported by advertising? The IDC released findings that more than 1 in every 3 cellphones released in the future of 2011 will be a smartphone – more capable of surfing the web, doing multimedia, and thus having access to more types of content than your typical cellphone.
Currently operators make money through subscriptions to their services. For instance, some companies charge for e-mail service, ringtone downloads or voting on television game shows.
But to get a slice of the mobile Internet age, companies will have to rely on advertising to get their products to consumers, analysts say.
“You have $110 billion spent on TV [advertising]. By 2008 you’ll see big shifts, to mobile and social networks,” said W2 Group chief executive Larry Weber.
According to the firm eMarketer, $16 billion will be spent on advertising on cellphones in 2011, 10 times more than today.[Inquirer]
But would I really want my mobile phone to display advertising all the time? First off, free services, though FREE don’t look too classy. Imagine I’m a business executive trying to show my phone to other people and ads of “single women want to play” start popping up? Doesn’t that make it a tad too scary?
