Facebook has been successful in not only owning the user, but they do a great job in “viral marketing”.  Will this growth continue or will privacy kill them? Will they become the next Internet? Will they form that unique strategic partnership with Apple?  They are consistently going from country to country and becoming the underlining social graph.

However, there are countries that have not become dominated yet by Facebook.  Not only are they in the top of Apple’s portfolio of must downloaded applications, Mobile has been know to be a usage case of social media ( >50%).  Many strong mobile players such as Mocospace, AirG, Brightkite, Loopt, Gowalla, Foursquare keep on growing, but the shear volume of growth of Facebook is astounding.

Many companies have leveraged “Facebook Connect” as a way to build there usage base, and they seem unstoppable.  Bebo is up for sale, and the other social networks are taking on a completely new business models.   Even Twitter has not shown the growth yet as Facebook, and as Facebook has prided itself with Direct to the end-user, they can bring any kind of app as integrated into their platform and just crush the competition.  Location was launched recently in Facebook, but when are we going to see extravagant maps tied to the overall service.

As they say, “what goes up- must come down” so it will be interesting to see where they peak or will they just become the WWW…. or FFF.

Today is a very exciting day in the field of brand marketing and advertising!  It marks the day of the Advertising Revolution in my mind. Steve Job announced iAD at the iPhone 4.0 Dev conference.  It has been something we have all been anticipating for some time.  I myself have been looking at the ideas around emotional brand marketing and interactivity with mobile as a core part of our work here at ADObjects.   As the mobile device is so personal it is our emotional amplifier.  It is with us night and day and clearly something we just can not keep our eyes off of… it goes way beyond the SMS lead, but what experience surrounding the brand.

Our vision and motto: Digital Hand. Analog Touch is further realized….

Well Apple gets it and keeps revolutionizing upon the vision of all of us in the media space for what the true mobile device can be all about. Besides creating a massive ecosystem for publishers to bring unique new tantalizing experiences via applications, they have set a new bar in bringing out this exciting platform for brand marketers…

Here is some of the coverage……. not only is today the day of the Golf Masters where Tiger Woods is back with NIKE,  Steve obviously is bringing NIKE as an example at such a serendipitous time.   NIKE is attacking brand marketing from all different angles today!

1) iPhone Nike Ad Demo

Here is the coverage on Techcrunch

2) Apple Announces the iAD mobile advertising platform

And here is the comprehensive coverage of the day on gdgt.

3) Live iPhone 4.0 coverage

So now we have video, information, click-to-action and all different exciting formats blended together for brand marketers in a unique delivery system that came from the foundation of the mobile advertising company Quattro Wireless.  Regardless of what they paid for this company, Apple has been able to transform the vision of unique engagement marketing into there magical experience around the iPhone. Google has been about reach and performance via clicks-on-links.   Apple is about reach and performance based on clicks-on-emotions.   Our from this we will see new metrics emerge for the foundations of brand marketing as part of the conversion funnel such as CTE ( Click-to-Emotion).

How exciting is it going to be now to see how all the incumbents match this challenge.   Google is still in discussion with the FTC over Admob, Microsoft has been so focused on Search, and all the mobile advertising companies out there are trying to innovate in there own right with new mobile ad formats and concepts to bring differentiation.   This is big day as it will definitely get  media buyers to go deeper with their creative producers in the agencies to build that new from of brand-experience  for their clients with mobile.

I can stop thinking how ” Focus” and then ” Incremental” Growth really can be shown with the success of Apple and the iPhone.  This all started with a simple music device [1] ipod that was build independently of a real music store, but as a desireable, sexy product the consumer wanted.  As the critical mass grew, [2] out came the iTunes music store.  Then came the switch over to the intel processor that would be the next step to bring this all together into a mobile device.

When entering a new channel or market, sometimes it makes sense to keep variables to a minimum and get that service and product right with that channel first before bring in the complexity of the long-term vision and strategy.  The next step was to launch the iPhone with a similar formula as the iPod.  ”Make a sexy device that the market wants and sell like mad”.  Then keep the incremental improvements and focus. [4] Shortly after came the iPhone App Store.   When we look back and connect the dots this all seems so easy,  but is was a long-term strategy and plan to tackle and grow in the consumer service and entertainment space one-by-one.   Focus and putting energy one step at a time with consistant improvements and scalable growth with a  strategythat could win has really proved to be correct with this one.

I look at the other mobile handset manufactures and the complexity of their products and  the jump from generation to generation tells me the unbalance between strategy and focus has not solidified the foundation that Apple was able to achieve.  Now there is going to be incredible competition from Nokia, RIM and Google in the next wave, what is the next step in this process of focus to keep expanding  growing thier loyality and market position.