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Cellphones Sponsored By Ads? When Will It End?

CNN reports on Eric Schmidt saying that sooner or later mobile phones will be free to those who will accept to watch targeted commercials on the devices.

“Your mobile phone should be free,” Schmidt told Reuters. “It just makes sense that subsidies should increase” as advertising rises on mobile phones.

I wonder when consumers are going to rebel against this (not the tech-crowd that already uses Firefox with Adblock and download TV episodes without ads – I mean regular consumers). How long are people going to put up with this?

It’s funny, I haven’t seen an ad in ages and really don’t miss them. Actually, I feel better without them. Free is great, but hell, I would rather pay than to be constantly bombarded by crap that is trying to manipulate me into spending money.

One assumption I would also like the challenge that underlies all of this, is that the advertising budgets of the global economy is apparently bottomless. One of these days, everything is going to be sponsored? And who is going to pay for that?

Well, in Japan you have mobile portals that are 100% sponsored and free. As the end consumer you know what to expect when you go there. On the other side, there are also many mobile sites (i-mode) where you have to pay a monthly fee to get access, of course on these sites you will not find any advertising. In the end, the consumer will pick and choose where to go, for what reason and if they accept advertising in exchange for … (ashu mathura, MADS | mobile advertising network).

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