We’ve been hearing for quite some time now that in the near future, ads will be a common occurrence on cell phones.  I don’t know about you, but I have resisted believing that such a thing could really happen.  After all, who is going to stand for being charged to receive intrusive sales pitches on their cell phone?  Well, it seems that advertisers are already making headway in this effort that has been aptly referred to as ”mobile marketing.

”First of all, 75% of the United States has cell phones.  That equates to about 225 million people.  Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt predicts that we will soon see free cell phones, with the cost of a service plan subsidized entirely by ads.  As a matter of fact there is apparently already a Google-branded phone in the works.

An existing business model for “SugarMama” provides some insight as to how the near future may look.  The Virgin Mobile service provides 4 million users - mostly teenagers - with up to 75 minutes of free airtime a month if they watch ads and answer questions to prove they paid attention.  Since its launch in May, SugarMama has been used more than 2 million times, and it’s gaining about 1,000 new users a day.  It has also attracted advertisers such as Pepsi, Sony Pictures, and the U.S. Navy, which gives the small mobile operator a welcome stream of nonvoice revenue.

Just imagine the power that will go to the early adopters of mobile marketing in the soon to be golden age of cell phone innovation!