Feature Phones vs Smartphones for advertising

Though the "app" has captured not only the hearts and minds of mobile advertisers, it has also become table stakes for any business to expand reach in an ever-more-competitive market. A few recent articles on ZDNet are pointing to the debate over focusing on "dumb" feature phones (text and voice only) or more advanced smartphones that can take advantage of smarter web applications for both advertising and commerce.

Though the focus in the US and Western Europe has been on the smartphone market, the majority of consumers in emerging markets are still using simpler feature phones, which require advertisers to participate via voice, MMS or other text messaging.  While shipments of smartphones are increasing in most emerging markets, over 50% of users are still on feature phones.

From the ZDNET article, "ABI Research also estimates that the number of feature phone shipments to India will hit 238.1 million by 2017, from 182.4 million this year. This is compared with smartphone shipments, which are forecast to hit 97.2 million from 20.3 million within the same timeframe."  Obviously, while smartphone penetration is growing, the sheer NUMBER of feature phones still dwarfs the number of smartphones.  http://www.zdnet.com/feature-phone-ads-still-a-draw-7000001206/

In fact, companies like Singtel are putting more focus on feature phone advertising in a effort to reach more consumers.  http://www.zdnet.com/singtel-eyes-feature-phone-ad-market-2062304754/

When considering the number of mobile ad impressions served up in Q2 2012 as published by Opera, the obvious leaders were in the US, Canada, and the UK.  Yet, the list of the top 20 countries also included Indonesia, Japan, India, China, the Philippines, and Malaysia. The size of the emerging market is undeniable, but companies need to figure out where to put the limited advertising resources for optimum payoff.  For example, in China in 2011, eCommerce hit over $928B, so the strength of the market is clear.  Yet, the mobile Average revenue per user was on US$10, and even lower at $5 in India.
http://www.zdnet.com/e-tailers-need-mobile-first-strategy-in-asia-7000001274/

Finding a way to convert more customers from various mobile platforms will become critical.  Even with the new sub-$100 Android smartphones and the continual decrease in smartphone prices, advertisers would be shortsighted to dismiss the feature phone market that is massive in most emerging markets.