Mobile phones are ubiquitous. Analysts predict that the US mobile phone market will have attained 100% saturation in the next couple of years. Other parts of the world are already saturated, like the far east, but as one would expect, developing regions such as Africa still have a ways to go. This makes the mobile phone more predominant than the personal computer. However, the user experience of mobile phones does not offer the same relative level of consistency as that of the personal computer. Mobile device capabilities such as screen resolution and support for web browsing varies greatly from device to device.
Mobile phone are personal – unlike a personal computer, you typically don’t share your mobile device with another person - this provides a great opportunity for delivering personalized, targeted content and advertising to an individual.
Mobile devices are constant companions. Next to your keys and wallet (or purse), you mobile phone is one device that you almost always carry around with you. This allows consumers to interact and respond to advertising no matter where they are. This immediacy, combined with the ability of many mobile phones to determine where a consumer is located (through GPS and cellular triangulation) makes location-based advertising very possible.
In essence, mobile phone allow marketers to deliver a highly targeted experiences to individual consumers at a specific point in time and at a specific location. This is a very powerful capability that is not easily replicated in other channels, one every marketer should be exploring.