In June, I wrote an article, .  Now that Apple’s AppStore is just shy of 10,000 applications, what are you doing to differentiate your application?  Most app developers are doing nothing, waiting for Apple’s Push Notification Service.

While I am sure Apple’s service won’t disappoint, it’s does little for differentiating new applications.  I’ve gone through several applications, that have tried using alert messages for launching new applications and they are more bothersome than effective.

With 10,000 applications in the Appstore, unless you’re in the top 25, it’s very difficult for new consumers to find your application.  Developers need to be including a mobile opt-in on their website so consumers can sign up for text alerts.  This way, an AppStore link can be delivered right to their iPhone when you’re ready to download.  The massive turn-around will differentiate the app and—if your crowd is sizable—push you into the 25 most popular.

- Ainsworth

A new wave of the cell phone market has begun: the release of the iPhone SDK. While there has been a small market for mobile based applications, entirely new companies, some supported by KPCB’s $100 million iFund, will be spawned to produce iPhone supported applications. While the actual extent of this marketplace is still unclear, it still hits with the same sincerity that something is happening in the mobile world. I’d bet it’s unlike anything we’ve seen before.

Mobile marketing and mobile content distribution functions at a more powerful level than electronic newsletter subscriptions. Undoubtedly, electronic newsletter subscriptions are key to maintaining close access to former customers, current customers, and future customers. At the touch of a button, businesses can easily deliver news to the e-mail boxes of subscribers. Therefore, users are receiving their content when you need them to, and not when they stumble upon it, many weeks later - if ever.

The truth is, those were valuable, back when users were subscribed to a select few lists and were more open to mass e-mails. Now users are opting out of these newsletters or driving them to their junk box; this brings new value to the RSS feed, allowing users to have yet another method to cleanly manage information they wanted to read while sparing their inboxes. While, the RSS reader is still increasing in value, it does not hit the key point of business marketing: reliably pinging your audience at the crucial moment - the tipping point.

Don’t forget: the iPhone has SMS!

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