Nokia Buys into Mobile Advertising

Finnish handset maker Nokia is to purchase the privately owned, US-based, mobile advertising technology and services company Enpocket. The Finns have not said how much they intend to pay for Enpocket.

The Boston-based ad company currently employs around 120 people and works directly with several major mobile operators, including Vodafone, Sprint Nextel and Bharti Airtel in India.

The global market for mobile advertising is expected to soar during the next five years, with one respected commentator putting its worth as US$5 billion by 2012. Speaking in May of this year at Reuters' Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit in New York, AOL's chief executive officer, Randy Falco, claimed that companies are "desperate to enter this emerging market".
AOL, the Internet division of Time Warner Inc, has itself recently purchased a privately held mobile advertising company Third Screen Media. Falco underlined his company's belief in the future of this advertising medium saying, "I think mobile is one of the great growth opportunities, along with global that we have."

The AOL chief cited estimates from the advertising industry itself, which put the projected growth in mobile advertising at a ten-fold increase over the next five years from an estimated US$500 million to US$900 million currently. He noted that these were not AOL estimates, but claimed that they are not "crazy" projections.