• by Aaron Baar , September 10, 2009

Smartphone users are open to receiving advertising on their mobile devices, but some forms may work better than others.

According to Compete's quarterly "Smartphone Intelligence" survey, nearly one-third of all smartphone owners are comfortable or very comfortable receiving targeted marketing on their device. Of these, nearly half are receptive to location-based offers at restaurants (or other offers to pursue at their leisure), and 45% would use mobile grocery coupons.

"[It looks like] impulse purchases are a better hook for marketers than a considered purchase," Elaine Sanfilippo, director of consumer technology at TNS's Compete, tells Marketing Daily. "Those offers that have that instant impact really resonate with people."

Meanwhile, application adoption differs greatly among users of the two most popular smartphones. While 73% of BlackBerry owners have downloaded five or fewer apps, 72% of iPhone users have downloaded 10 or more. IPhone users are also more likely to spend money on applications, although 83% of them prefer applications priced under $5.

The ready adoption of apps among iPhone users is likely the result of factors: the immense size of Apple's App Store and its ease of use, Sanfilippo says. "What the iPhone was able to do with one specific device is incredible," she says.

Smartphone users also differ in their use of social networking sites and applications. IPhone users are twice as likely as BlackBerry users to use the mobile Facebook app for their social networking. Among iPhone users, 71% use the Facebook app on their phones, while 37% listed it as one of their top three most-utilized apps and 18% said it was their favorite.

Twitter, however, is much less popular. Only 26% of iPhone users use their devices to tweet, compared with 15% of Palm owners and 10% of BlackBerry owners. Of those who use the applications, 41% use the service to keep track of their friends, while only 19% use their handsets to build a fan base or promote their company.

Again, Apple's ease of use, along with its younger, consumer-centric demographic, may be at work among social media usage, Sanfilippo says. Plus, the smartphone market is so young, many people aren't sure exactly how they want to use their phones. "Seventy percent [of users] are new to the market," Sanfilippo says. "They didn't know what they wanted until it was put in front of them."