• by June 21, 2002

The latest technology allows readers to get their morning news—ads and all—out of thin air. I’m in Palm heaven,” wrote Nancy C. Hanger of her AvantGo content delivery service. “If I were still an urban commuter, I’d love to use this for my morning and evening subway/train travel time. It’s perfect: sync at home, read on the way in; sync at work before leaving, and read the evening editions on your way home.” In her pre-millennial piece for CMPnet.com, Hanger was raving about the benefits of wireless application service providers, or WASPs, back when only the most tech-savvy geeks in your office were glued to their Palm Pilot. If a year ago seems like the last century to you—and I mean in terms of technological advances—you may remember that when AvantGo first launched its content delivery service, there was a price, and it was high. You might be entertained to learn that the company charged $99 for its “Web Client,” which you had to buy before you could even access web content, back when content wasn’t free.

But all that’s changed now. AvantGo—a California-based company dedicated to delivering wireless content over the Net—has become more comprehensive and there are no longer any fees associated with using their online content client—except for the monthly service fee for the use of your wireless device. Depending on whether you have a cell phone, two-way pager or personal digital appliance (e.g. Palm Pilot or other Windows CE-based hand-held product), AvantGo makes money from licensing deals with their content providers and their newly instituted advertising buys.

Lisa Culver, Director of Partner Marketing and Development for AvantGo, explained that since advertising space has only been available on the AvantGo mobile Internet service network for the past four months or so, it is immensely popular not only with companies who provide content but also with outside advertisers who are eager to get their brand into, well, thin air. The individual content providers, such as Fox News, Salon.com, The Weather Channel and Business Week are organized into “channels” which are categorized on the AvantGo website by type, like News, Entertainment, Finance, and so on. You don’t need a modem to see the content, which can be downloaded through your desktop when you sync your wireless device, though if you have one you can connect to the Net from your hand-held at will.

Ads are woven into the editorial page either as a single logo graphic which may be clickable or as an unassuming link. The latter is the only type of ad that AvantGo themselves sell; that is, on the device homepage. The rest of the inventory is bought by advertisers like Fox and then sold by them. Culver says an email link is the most popular type of advertising that AvantGo currently supports, since the advertiser can capture user data (usually an email address) on the hyper-linked page. The AvantGo software is also fairly complex in that it converts HTML pages into readable text on your wireless device, so that nearly any website you like can be viewed.

Wireless information delivery is purportedly the “next big thing” for consumers and advertisers alike. But as a potential buyer of the ads that run on networks like AvantGo (who, by the way, has quite a few worthy competitors including ClickServices.com and Bitmo), you have to wonder how many consumers will actually see your ads. Culver states that AvantGo in particular, at press time, had 700,000 members who relied on their content delivery from more than 400 providers to hand held devices like a web-enabled phone, two-way pager, or hand held organizer. But how many users of wireless data service does the Palm, the most popular device, have? The Palm VII, introduced last year by 3Com, was the first of the company’s line to have a wireless modem built in. As of a month or so ago, the Palm apparently had about 100,000 wireless customers. What percentage of these might be using AvantGo is hard to say; as for the possible advertising reach, you can do the math.