This Is Not An Apple iPhone Blog Posting

Tomorrow Apple lets the iPhone loose in the United States. I’m not going to Blog about it. Everyone else is. We all know about the iPhone (especially, us Bloggers). People (including Robert Scoble) are already waiting in line to buy it. It’s very exciting_ I’m very excited (and I can’t even get one in Canada). I’ve watched the online video about the iPhone keyboard (it looks like it does work as well as a Blackberry keyboard – if I am to believe the video), but, I simply can’t bring myself to Blog about the iPhone and what it can do.
What I can (and will) Blog about today is how important this *might* be to Marketers. Particularly those interested in creating content like Blogs, Podcasts and websites for their consumers.
It’s become clear (and clearer) that content is the killer application. We’ve gone from worrying about whether or not Television and the Internet will converge into a race to create the most compelling content for consumers (at the risk of them creating it themselves, if we don’t) and we have yet to truly focus on where the consumers are wanting to receive this content.
You see, the iPhone does not introduce a new channel for us to push content or advertising into, but rather a global device that is many things to many different people – and that’s the biggest challenge.
It’s widescreen_ and it’s not. It’s images_ and it’s audio. It’s video_ and it’s a PDA.
We’re no longer dealing with someone who will see your ad on TV, hear it on the radio or see it in some form of print (out-of-home, magazine, etc_). We’re literally trapped in a corner and at the mercy of a consumer who can view our ads in all of those formats (and more) in the palm of their hand.
Scared?
We should be.
The challenge from here on out will be two-fold:
1. Is it compelling? Are we creating, engaging and opening up our content and advertising in a way that makes sense to the consumers beyond bashing them over the head with impressions?
2. Technology. Can we avoid getting too “fat” and truly work at streamlining content by understanding how it will be delivered to the end-Consumer, so that no matter how they want it, it is devoid of “buffering” issues. Technology should never be the stumbling block for the consumer.
Marketers need to create messages and content that works for the channel specific. We’ve been shouting this for decades, but when one hand-held device can reproduce every channel we’ve ever marketed within (and more), we all need to stand-up, get in line, get our hands on one and figure out how we’re going to shape the future of Marketing, Advertising and Communications when everyone out there truly has the whole world in their hands.