In the last few days I think I may have spent more time monitoring the state of the Nissan Cube car brand on mobile handsets than have the brand managers behind the new and quirky car. And I am still trying to figure out what the car is about. As I tooled around a wealth of branded media as well as third-party auto sites, it left me wondering whether it's too early in the mobile lifecycle to expect a product to have a coherent mobile footprint.

There are a handful of media types that seem to be struggling mightily to find their proper mobile form. Intuitively, we know that formats like radio, podcasting, short-form video, and even books and magazines should map well against the portability of mobile and the enlarging, lush palette of the smart phone screen. Watching each of these media experiment with different modes of delivery and presentation is one of the unique joys of being involved in the early stages of a new technology.

It's hard not to love the Absolut Vodka Drinkspiration branded app that just launched on the iPhone late last week and will appear on Android soon as well. Basically a mixed drinks selector with a lot of cool twists, the app satisfies a basic brand extension task. It is as drop-dead gorgeous and conceptually interesting as the classic Absolut print ads. Check that box off. But does it go anywhere with these good looks?

As we move into the July Fourth holiday weekend, I am determined to shed my recent grumpiness over crappy mobile Web pages, ham-handed 2D code executions (I got a lot of mail on that one!) and the weirdness caused by tossing Google AdSense into any old mobile app. Here then, for a holiday respite from my usual crankiness, I join the legions of cheerleaders for a patriotic weekend of mobile boosterism. No whining. No complaining. Here are things that make me proud to be a mobilista.

There are few sure things about the future of mobile marketing. The long-term effectiveness of micro-banners, 2D scan codes, branded apps, SMS interactivity, near-field communication technologies and the like are all open and interesting questions. If there is one model I would put my money on, however, it is mobile couponing. Few traditional marketing formats map so well to the phone. Instead of clipping, storing and remembering to carry these paper savings certificates, a mobile device makes it so much easier to locate the right discount and use it on the spot.

Google's formal announcement that it was feeding AdWords placements into iPhone and Android apps took me by surprise today. I thought this had started a while ago. For a couple of weeks now I have been running across these little text links in some apps. They sport a tiny blue "g" in the right corner. My early experience is mixed with these ads....

Many of the most important developments on the iPhone really come from the new OS that launched last week. In the first few days of playing with the software, I am impressed by the potential for the new in-app billing system. Game publishers can offer incremental levels and content providers can open up select access to new content. I think this will be a test bed for pay content models that could refract back onto the Web.

It started innocently enough. It was a cool June day on the streets of New York where outside of Penn Station some street marketers were passing out samples of Speed Stick antiperspirant. When I got to my hotel room and unpacked the cellophane bag I noticed that the promo included a 2D code I was prompted to snap and send to a short code.

It just builds up inside. The frustration. The impatience. The desire to reach into the phone and shake a WAP site by the throat and scream "Why are you doing this to me? Can't you see other people do this so much better?"

"Boring! Can we fast-forward?" my daughter asks as Joan Baez warbles "Joe Hill" at Woodstock. That my daughter disapproves of my music library and my mobile app collection is not surprising, but a new study from consulting firm Gravity Tank actually makes that exact point: "Apps are a very personal kind of software. Indeed, it's useful to stop thinking about them as software at all, and instead compare them to music. Like music, apps are a social phenomenon -- we love to talk about them, try them, compare them, and share them." And get lambasted about your preferences by snotty …