T-Mobile and Nokia Deals Could Signal Mobile Market Maturity

Announced yesterday they would partner with Yahoo to deliver display advertising on their Web’n’walk mobile Internet service. The ads will roll out across the network in the first half of 2008, and will be sold and served exclusively by Yahoo.

The deal, together with Yahoo’s current mobile advertising partnership with Vodafone, now gives them access to 2 of the most lucrative mobile operators in the UK, and cements Yahoo’s dominance in the UK mobile ad arena.

Similarly Nokia Ad Business (Nokia’s mobile advertising arm) announced this week they would sell and serve ads for Reuters’ UK mobile site, representing the largest mobile ad related contract for Nokia since their acquisition of Enpocket in October last year. In addition to display ads, Nokia will offer solutions such as branded mobile sites for Reuters’ advertisers.

Could this mean that 2008 is taking shape as the infamous “year of mobile”? It all depends on whether advertisers start seeing significant ROI from the medium, and begin to view mobile as an effective tool in its own right rather than an afterthought to more traditional Web campaigns.