• Ad Age, Tuesday, June 9, 2009 1 PM

Ad Age's Rita Chang takes a look at the new iPhone 3G S from a marketer's perspective. The new device, which is faster and has more storage capacity, also comes loaded with a brand new operating system. A 16 GB model will retail for $199 with a two-year contract. For marketers, speed is key, Chang says, allowing for faster downloads, while the phone's greater memory and processing speed will allow advertisers to create more complex ad units.

"People are already using their phones as mini-computers," said Tina Unterlaender, account director, AKQA. "But the faster speeds will change user behavior even more. It's going to change the way whole new generations access the Internet, and it's going to mean that brands will have to redistribute their marketing mix if they want to reach a young group." Krish Arvapally, chief technology officer of mobile ad platform provider Mojiva, noted that since Apple announced its new iPhone software in March, Mojiva has seen a 20% increase in the number of advertisers who say they want to target iPhone users.

Another key addition, Chang says, is the new Safari Web browser, which will have built-in location-based technology. "Until now, marketers had to count on users to enter their ZIP codes in a browser to geo-target offers via the mobile web," she says. "Now, with the Safari web browser pulling the users' location data into the browser experience, marketers could serve geo-targeted ads to any iPhone user with an open browser -- assuming the user has allowed the website operator to track his location."

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