Orange has released details of a controversial programme to bring in extra revenue by showing adverts on mobile phones.
Major advertisers such as Microsoft, Jaguar and Peugeot are understood to have signed up to the scheme which is the first attempt by a phone company to leverage its clients in this way.
The adverts will be piped directly to the phones using demographic targeting from data about the products and services the user has looked at on the internet via the phone. It is thought that advertisers will be willing to pay a premium for the fact that the data stored about peoples preferences and interests allows for such precise targeting.
Advertising on mobile phones is currently quite low at £60m but predictions are being made about the industry being worth £5bn by 2010.
Initially the adverts will only be shown to customers with high end phones but its thought that they will be shown to all users of the Orange portal by the end of the year.
Orange is playing a dangerous game with this. Most users, especially those with high end phones, will be annoyed by the adverts and may think that Orange are profiteering at the expense of the users. Of course the adverts may be a good way for Orange to reduce phone bills but some users may be happy to pay more and keep their handsets advert free.
