The VeriPhone ‘changes everything,’ but how will it change your brand’s approach to mobile marketing?

If there’s some benefit to having waited two years for an iPhone of their own, it’s that the noise around Verizon’s announcement yesterday was deafening.  And while there’s no lack of buzz, there seems to be little discussion about what effect it will actually have on marketers’ plans for the platform.  With a multi-carrier distribution strategy (finally!), we expect Apple will heat up the competition for mobile market share, shaking up the industry yet again.  But how will any of this impact your brand’s mobile marketing strategy?  To answer that, let’s explore the less-obvious implications of the long awaited Verizon iPhone.

Mobile marketing has been, in some ways, a game of wait and see for the last year, for reasons just like this.  At the start of 2010, the question was: app or mobile website—nobody had to ask what kind of app because, at that point, the iPhone seemed like the only platform worth developing an app for.  But by July, even after the release of the iPhone 4 on AT&T’s network, mobile marketing experts were already starting to question Apple’s dominance in the mobile arena as Google’s Android platform surged ahead.  And by the end of last year, Android successfully eclipsed iOS, climbing to market share leader and, of course, shaking up mobile analysts’ predictions for the coming year.

Today’s announcement should not in any way detract from Google’s accomplishment but, like it or not, it will have a significant impact on mobile market share, and therefore, it should play a part in how marketers’ plan for mobile.

That might seem like an overstatement, but let me revisit my previous argument against marketers’ (once prevalent) iPhone v. the world mindset.  At that time, AT&T was the sole carrier through which the iPhone was distributed, which meant no matter how popular their device was, Apple would keep bumping into a market share ceiling until they could broaden their distribution channels (and so would marketers that developed exclusively for the iOS platform).  But by making the immensely popular iPhone available to mobile users on America’s largest wireless network, Apple seems to have leveled the mobile playing field. Again.

So what? For mobile marketers, this makes iPhone app development a very appealing option once again, particularly in combination with recent reports on 2010 growth trends for Apple’s app store.  Unlike Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7, where app market growth was driven primarily by games and entertainment apps, within the App Store the three top growth categories were business, medical and lifestyle apps.  This serves as an indication that Apple’s App Store is starting to mature and diversify, perhaps more so than those of other, younger platforms.  For brands interested in app development this means, for now anyway, iOS is an excellent starting point for rolling out native apps.  But let’s not get too carried away…

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again. Mobile marketing is about creating a comprehensive solution, and not just selecting a platform and building your app.  That’s why, 98 out of 100 times, we recommend starting out with a mobile website.  On the mobile web, downloads don’t matter and market fragmentation isn’t a barrier to your brand’s reach.  While the Verizon iPhone is still big news for consumers, marketers and developers alike, an iPhone app is not a replacement for a mobile website.  The VZW iPhone may “change the game” when it comes to app development,  but an app should never serve as a substitute for a comprehensive mobile marketing approach.