By Zaw Thet

The iPhone is hot in mobile advertising. As evidence, mobile ad network AdMob focused the most recent edition of its monthly Mobile Metric Report entirely on usage of iPhone applications in its network.

There is little doubt in the collective mind of marketers that Apple's breakthrough iPhone mobile device creates a whole new playing field.

With an unlimited data plan that easily delivers applications and Internet functionality, the face of mobile marketing is completely changed, and SMS is most certainly a dead, obsolete technology. Right? Wrong!!!

Although it is logical to believe that the ease of use delivered by iPhone applications and Web access will degrade the opportunity for text message marketing, it is a belief that is not supported by available data.

We were inspired by Brightkite's survey-based quarterly Mobile Advertising Report, produced with GFK/NOP Research, which showed "a very marked difference between iPhone users and non-users." Specifically, iPhone users are 23 percent more likely to use SMS than non-users.

With that fact in hand, we set out to discover just how different iPhone users really are when it comes to text message marketing.

These results come from analysis conducted on recent data, collected April -June 2009 from the 4Info network.

Who is texting
Analysts and pundits are anxious to predict the demise of texting, with the iPhone and the Palm Pre dominating headlines both in consumer news and the trades.

Noting the surging popularity of the iPhone, CNET blogger Don Reisinger wrote "... rest assured that text messaging won't be around for long and it may even be gone before you know it."

However, that is not what we are seeing.

In fact, among this sample of users from the 4Info network, the two most popular device types are iPhones and BlackBerrys, with nearly one-third of users using those handsets.

Compare this to the general population of mobile phone users, where per comScore (MobiLens, first quarter 2009) only 12 percent have any type of smartphone at all.

With access to bigger keyboards and screens, I would argue that smartphone users are apt to continue growing as greater consumers of text message information.

There are more than 1,000 different devices being used to access mobile media nationwide. The iPhone only represents 7 percent of mobile media users today.

Yet, when we looked at the top 10 devices used by consumers who had responded -- clicked -- on an SMS ad, iPhone users did the most clicking on links embedded in SMS content or advertising.

IPhone users are confident of the ability of their phones to access and render a mobile Web page and enjoy a rich media experience. They have large data plans, and click-to-WAP capability, all of which reduce barriers to clicking on a link delivered by text message.

How much they text
IPhone owners get more informational text messages, such as daily tips, sports scores, news and marketing messages than the average user of 4Info's text services.

As far as volume, iPhone users get about 40 percent more text message alerts than the average user and twice as many messages from 4Info partners. This certainly debunks the notion that the iPhone will kill text messaging.

The larger iPhone screen may create a more engaging format for reading information sent via text message, with easy scrolling to see multiple messages.

What they can do
IPhone users receive text messages from 4Info and the full range of partners, reaching users of all ages and interests. How are they different from the "average" 4Info user?

IPhone users get more sports alerts, and more daily tip alerts, but fewer weather alerts. Sports is tremendously popular with iPhone users, likely because the iPhone only just started offering "push" delivery of time sensitive information, except via SMS.

For example, to be notified the instant somebody scores a home run on an iPhone, a text message is the most expedient method. IPhone users are changing the kind of content that is most popular via SMS, with greater emphasis on real-time information and links to richer media experiences.

We found that iPhone users often first discovered 4Info services through our partners, with Evite as the top point of entry, with over 20 percent users first joining our network through their mobile alerts.

Evite offers party planning and virtual invitations online. As part of its services, users can sign up for text message alerts on invitations and responses to invitations. Other popular services were Myxer (ringtones), Mapquest (directions) and SayNow (celebrity voicemail).

What they don't do
IPhone users do not tend to use 4Info's text message search capabilities. Given the utility of the device, this is not too surprising.

Although it is faster to text for a sport score or weather forecast than to search the Web on the device, it is more intuitive for a generation raised on the Internet to pop open that ubiquitous Google search box. But even in this area, the amount of searching done by an iPhone user is only slightly less than the average.

Apps aren't the only iPhone game
When it comes to marketing to iPhone users, the goals often start and end with applications.

The fact is applications are used infrequently, and sometimes not at all, with less than 5 percent of applications having more than 100,000 users, according to AdMob research.

Text messaging is used all the time, and it is the only mobile channel accessible to all mobile phone owners, which is particularly important if you want to create interactivity with your offline marketing efforts in print, television, point-of-sale or radio.

Not only are iPhone users reached more effectively via text message, they are also more likely to respond to these programs. As evidenced by the response history, these users are also much more likely to seek richer mobile media experiences discovered through links embedded in text messages.

Too many marketers go down the path of creating a mobile campaign targeted at the affluent iPhone audience by creating an application or advertising in one, but stop too soon -- before they have reached that full audience. Don't neglect one of the most popular mobile channels for iPhone users -- text messaging.

Zaw Thet is CEO of 4Info Inc., a text messaging specialist in San Mateo, CA. Reach him at .