Last week's GSMA Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona, Spain was the launch pad for many new next-generation phones that support multimedia and mobile marketing.

One thing seemed obvious from the mounds of product announcements generated at the show: Phone manufacturers hold the future of mobile marketing in their hands. Touch screens, GPS, social networks, pizza-ordering -- what's not possible on phone today?

"As devices get smarter, consumers will be more accepting of mobile marketing," said Michael Foschetti, managing director at Mobisix, a Charlotte, NC-based mobile marketing firm. "This will make consumers more engaged and response rates will go up."

Handsets used in Japan, South Korea and China are far more advanced than those available in the United States. Not surprisingly, consumers in those markets are more receptive to advertisements on their phones.

The U.S. is slowly but surely catching up with international trends. AT&T has its Apple iPhone, T-Mobile USA has the Shadow, Verizon Wireless has the LG VX 10000 and BlackBerry has its panoply of business-friendly smartphones.

The launch of such smartphones will benefit both the consumer and the mobile marketer.

"Clearly it will create a much richer user experience and that will result in better opportunities for branding-type initiatives," Mr. Foschetti said. "Globally there are markets that are more accepting of mobile marketing because these markets have more advanced models."

Mr. Foschetti believes the same will hold true for the U.S.

Where are you?
But consider Mobile World Congress for a moment.

LG Electronics, Sony Ericsson, Samsung and Nokia all unveiled new phones at the weeklong show that attracted more than 50,000 attendees.

The most notable new phone from LG is the KF700, which has three input options, touch screen, a dial for switching from one application to the next and a keypad. LG also released the KF600, KF510, KS20 and the Viewty.

Samsung debuted the Soul, part of Samsung's Ultra Edition series of phones that has a touch screen. The phone's panel displays navigation icons that change according to the current application being run on the handset.

The introduction of GPS-enabled phones has also had a tremendous impact on location-based services.

Nokia is a big advocate of GPS, especially with the new launch of its 6210 Navigator. The GPS-enabled phone comes with an integrated compass for pedestrian navigation. Additionally, Nokia announced the 6220 Classic, the N78 and the N96.

For its part, Sony Ericsson launched the Xperia X1, a Windows Mobile smartphone with built-in GPS. It also has a touch screen overlay and a QWERTY keyboard.

Phones are no longer just voice communication devices, as these new mobile devices show. They are now navigation devices, photo cameras, video cameras and portable PCs.

The growing popularity of feature-rich handsets has opened the door for marketers such as Chase, Yahoo, BMW, Pizza Hut, Land Rover and Coca-Cola Co. to not only deliver campaigns but also enable transactions.

Mr. Foschetti's colleague, David Verklin, CEO of Aegis Media Americas, summed it up best when he spoke at the OMMA Mobile show a few weeks ago in New York.

Mr. Verklin, who coined the phrase, "Media is the new creative," now believes that "data is the new creative." A phone that is receptive to permission-based marketing and commerce is a phone that's capable of generating even more valuable data on the consumer.

So, with smarter phones come tighter targeting metrics, Mr. Foschetti said.

"Originally [mobile] phones were more of a luxury and now they are becoming a need," Mr. Foschetti said. "People can't leave home without them. That's the reasoning behind developing new features and functionality to help people stay organized and connected to anything while on-the-go."