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Microsoft acquires ScreentonicMicrosoft has just noticed it might be on the verge of missing out on one of the latest candidates – advertising on the mobile web. So it has decided to acquire a French mobile advertising specialist – Screentonic. A typical ecstatic prediction for the mobile web comes from ABI Research which forecast that the worldwide mobile marketing and advertising market will increase sixfold to $19 billion by 2011 from an estimated $3 billion byQ1 2008. A Microsoft spokesman said, the acquisition of Screentonic "will be part of our long-term strategy to deliver ad experiences that map to the mobile Internet. Together, we will be able to provide relevant ads where consumers are, when they are actively engaged and communicating." The purchase should boost Microsoft's Digital Advertising division which has recently been bolstered by the acquisition of Massive, which places adverts inside games and Motionbridge, which offers mobile search. Back at 3GSM Barcelona in February, ScreenTonic announced it had passed the one billion mark in the number of page impressions sold for mobile phones. Amongst its clients it could number Coca-Cola, Reebok, Citroën, Jaguar, EMI, Peugeot, BMW and Paramount Pictures. Screentonic's STAMP technology was up for an award from the GSM Association at 3GSM but didn't quite win. Advertising to mobile phones won't be as easy as some players might expect, according to Wapple founder, Rich Holdsworth. His company's software can render an advert so that any handset can view it. As Holdsworth pointed out, top-end smartphones could receive a Flashlite or SVG style advert, while lesser models would receive an animated graphic. Base level phones, however, would just receive pure text. "It's not like the web," Holdsworth explained. "You've got IE 7, IE6, Firefox, Safari and a few others. So you know your advert will work. With the mobile net it's equivalent to having to cater to Commodore 64 users as well as those with the very latest Dell." Whatever happens, loads of interest will now focus on other companies claiming to cover the mobile advertsiing space – such as Admob, which recently launched its mobile advertising platform for Wordpress bloggers .The full Inquirer story ... Microsoft snuffles up mobile ad form, Screentonic |
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