Mobile Dominates Summer News
Usually as slow as a 2G connection, July was full of mobile industry news.
Of course, Antennagate got the most attention, including in this space. But before August hit, we were left to ponder high-profile device shortages, the slow start to Apple’s iAd program as well as hacked calls that make us wonder about our phones’ security as well as our own.
Many of Apple’s woes were self-inflicted as the company allowed relatively minor reception issues with the iPhone 4 to become a tale of poor crisis management. But now with bumpers supposedly solving the not-enough-bars problem, the company’s biggest need is to produce more iPhone 4s.
Apple reportedly could sell one million more iPhones and iPads if it could keep up with demand.
Others face similar manufacturing problems, including Sprint and HTC, companies that can’t deliver enough HTC EVO 4G devices to keep up with buyer wishes.
Given the fact that we’re not far from holiday gift-giving marketing, it will be interesting to see how aggressively the carriers and phone makers go in promising Santa (aka Steve Jobs, Sprint’s Dan Hesse and others) putting the latest phones under trees.
Meanwhile, Apple’s much anticipated and discussed iAd platform release July 1 was followed by a month of "anticipointment." At least $60 million is committed from advertisers, according to Apple. The company is touting the most engaging ad experiences as well as targeted brand campaigns reaching all iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch consumers - except those who opt out.
But so far we’ve seen little – I’ve yet to experience iAd on either my iPhone or iPad.
We know that more ads are coming and so are questions and concerns about privacy. Anticipate backlash from privacy advocates and consumers who will be bothered when they realize that they opted in to Apple’s ad program that is discoverable only in iTunes’ fine print.
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