THE arrival of the iPhone in Australia next month is likely to turbocharge the mobile advertising industry as marketers move to develop applications for the sought-after devices.
Mobile marketing experts have predicted the 3G Apple iPhone will ignite interest in advertising-supported 3G content across the board.
Analysts had projected that mobile advertising would be worth $7 million to $10million in Australia by 2008, but the figure has lagged well behind at just $3million.
While Optus and Vodafone will launch the iPhone in the Australian market, Telstra and Hutchison's 3 are not expected to be far behind.
Australia's biggest telco has not revealed its intentions but sources say it will likely offer incentives to customers wanting an iPhone on its network if they pre-order, even before Telstra has struck a deal with Apple.
Nicole Taylor, general manager of the Mobile Alliance at George Patterson Y&R, said she expected the hype surrounding the arrival of the new phone to lift the industry.
"I think it will have a huge impact," Ms Taylor said.
"Most of the barriers related to usage (of 3G) have been around user experience and this makes the user experience a great one. I think it will also lift the benchmark in terms of other smart phones."
Ms Taylor said mobile marketing would shift from being focused on a brand strategy to driving advertising through a content strategy, based on the quality of content that can be delivered over a 3G channel.
"Because it is a quality experience, it becomes a real gateway for advertisers," she said.
She also believed marketing interest in mobile platforms could accelerate two-fold in the wake of the launch of the iPhone, so mobile content needed to catch up with the technology.
One area in which marketers were expected to be specially active was in creating applications for various phones in the market that would then become indispensable for consumers.
Ms Taylor believed marketers would create a suite of "useful and functional" applications that would attract consumers to mobiles.
Analysts at broker Merrill Lynch have backed predictions the arrival of the iPhone will influence the broader mobile phone market.
"Subscribers have been migrating to 3G phones but have not been fully utilising the data features that the new networks offer," it said in a report yesterday. "The hype surrounding the iPhone launch should provide the catalyst for increased awareness of 3G handset data and internet capabilities across the entire industry.
"This should drive usage and revenues for all operators and we expect increased demand for high-end smartphones in general, not just the iPhone."
However, Ms Taylor said while the arrival of the iPhone would be a boon to marketing, she did not expect it to have the same impact as the iPod when it debuted. "There was ready-made content for the iPod by way of music when it launched," she said. "But for the moment the content still does not exist in the same way for 3G phones."
Analysts have cited consumers' fear of big bills as a reason mobile internet and 3G content usage has failed to take off.
BigPond director of media Bill Burton told the recent Mobile Content World forum people still questioned what could be accessed free over their phones.
The internet and mobile company has signed deals with three of Australia's biggest media buying groups in a bid to drive lagging advertising revenue.
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