Nokia has come to the final and definitive stages of purchasing mobile advertising based Enpocket, here’s the press release:

Nokia and Enpocket today announced that they have entered into an agreement for Nokia to acquire Enpocket (www.enpocket.com). Enpocket is a global leader in mobile advertising; providing technology and services that allow brands to plan, create, execute, measure and optimize mobile advertising campaigns around the world. By acquiring Enpocket, Nokia will accelerate the scaling of its mobile advertising business, leveraging Enpocket’s platform and strong partnerships with advertisers, publishers and operators. In addition to key assets, through this transaction Nokia is gaining a team with strong expertise in global mobile advertising across disciplines.

"Nokia has already announced its intention to be a leading company in consumer Internet services and we believe that mobile advertising will be an important element in monetizing those services for our customers and partners. Enpocket’s mature leading edge platform and people expertise are a strong fit with Nokia existing capabilities in the mobile advertising market," said Tero Ojanperä, Chief Technology Officer, Nokia. "This acquisition is a game changing move to bring the reach and depth of Nokia to organize the market across the world, and make it easier for an ecosystem to develop."

Enpocket is a privately-owned company, established in 2001 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. The innovative technology that drives the Enpocket platform is a mobile advertising campaign management and delivery system distinguished by advanced consumer insight, targeting, and measurement. The platform can deliver mobile advertising across multiple formats including SMS, MMS, mobile Internet advertising, and video. Enpocket is powering mobile advertising for leading mobile operators and publishers across the globe and has an ad sales force that is working with large brands. 

"Effective interactive advertising on the mobile device can create tremendous value for the mobile industry while bringing new Internet services to people around the world," said Enpocket President and Chief Executive Officer, Mike Baker. "Enpocket and Nokia are combining to provide the leadership needed to define, build and standardize globally the business of mobile advertising so that brands can easily and efficiently engage consumers on their personal devices."

I see a lot of potential in this, but as always this can also take the annoying route. Nothing worse then getting those annoying adds on your mobile phone while surfing or sending an SMS, not even if it’s targeted to my tastes! The huge potential of this comes in the world of mobile gaming. They could place in game ads during the loading or downloading time. They could also put billboards or brand specific virtual products throughout the game. It would be great if we could even choose the brands. For example it would be a small but nice detail if the main character uses an Nseries device. The add placement should be subtly done as too many ads start to affect the overall gaming experience. They could then use the income to offer lower cost games subsidized by the ads. If the new Ngage platform becomes hugely successful they could even offer free games. Of course there should always be an option to get games add-free for those us who prefer that. If they somehow manage to this everyone could benefit from this, even the group that almost never benefits from this sort of thing: the consumer, in this case the mobile gamers.