Dave’s Take

As anyone who hasn’t been living in a cave for the past five years knows, smart phones are riding a wave of popularity unseen previously in the mobile market. According to a study by Rubicon Consulting, smart phone sales are on the rise and the demand for them will only continue to grow. Despite the recession and record unemployment, smart phone sales increased over 10% in 2009 and this year’s sales promise to drive smart phone penetration to over 33% of all mobile phone sales. And with those increased sales, comes the inevitable increase in the number and richness of mobile ads.

Now, the god of all things cyber, Google is once again breaking new ground by designing ways for publishers to run bigger, more dynamic Google ads for smart phones equipped with HTML capabilities. Utilizing the newest smart phones, including the iPhone, Palm Pre and Android, Google based advertisers can now send and post ads featuring images, music and more characters than their predecessors. Where are these ads hiding, waiting for some unsuspecting mobile surfer to download their ilk? They are being imbedded in search engine results pages and free applications, forcing users to view them in order to get their requested information.

Not only are mobile searchers getting hit with these cutting edge annoyances already, but Google has guaranteed their numero uno position by engineering new advertising units that can be imbedded directly into all mobile apps without the need for special mobile landing pages. These are already in play with most iPhone free apps, but how long until they are a mainstay with paid applications? Personally, I don’t mind passive ads on free downloads, but when I shell out cash for something, I definitely don’t want to have to view any ads or promos when I use the program. I will also avoid any apps that carry ads that will feature music and video to annoy me. Will advertisers listen to people like me? Doubtful, but who knows?