If you have not attended any mobile industry conferences recently where techno geeks cast doubts about the future of apps and attack brands for not developing mobile services beyond the iPhone then let me shed some light on this subject.

The history of mobile marketing and advertising is that the industry started out in one of the worst technical environments where networks were extremely slow, good quality content was scarce, battery life of handsets was low, data charges were extortionate and it was a herculean task to get rich media to work on phones.

Agencies developed expensive campaigns, forced brands to accept poor reporting standards and designed mobile portals and java apps which need to be tested and ported for multiple handsets. Agencies were not to be blamed but a combination of network and device deficiencies created this conundrum. This environment was not conducive for brands and their agencies to justify resources and investment into mobile.

Apple came along and exploited the market gap created by poor product management and consumer experience being marketed by mobile operators and old school handset vendors. They created a brilliant device along with a global eco system of application developers who could develop, launch, market and monetise their applications within weeks rather than months.

Suddenly brands could reach customers immediately and got great response / return on investment. The business case was self explanatory and minimum customer education was required. Apple experiences the maximum number for app downloads and revenues though it has much lower penetration than other smartphone platforms. Brands and agencies have now found their new best friend in Apple and are more than willing to shift advertising budgets to mobile.

In the long run mobile portals will become more popular and downloadable apps may be selectively used for specific types of services. However, it is an uphill battle to convince Brands to develop applications for other handset platforms and invest in mobile portals till the time the industry as a whole improves standards and comes somewhere close to the Iphone and App Store experience.

This process has started but it is painfully slow, handset vendors and mobile operators need to change more aggressively to create a friendlier ecosystem and win back the confidence of brands and agencies.