Get ready for iPhone classifieds

Apple’s new iPhone 3G, announced earlier this week, is likely to become a mega rock star among smartphones, now that Apple has lowered its price to $199 (with 2-year commitment to AT&T service and additional $30-a-month data plan) to appeal to a mass market. The first-generation iPhone has about 6 million units in customers’ hands globally, and Apple’s goal is that iPhone 3G could add create another 10 million iPhone users this year.

What’s that got to do with classifieds? As should be obvious, smartphones like the iPhone represent a new and increasingly powerful way to reach consumers. Newspaper publishers should be thinking of ways to get their content onto the iPhone platform, including not just news but also classifieds.

I think there are many possibilities, but just to get you thinking, here’s one: Design a garage sale iPhone app that will pull in ads for local garage sales and map them. (This app would — no, must — bring in ads from the local newspaper AND other sources, especially free-classifieds sites like Craigslist and Kijiji.) Utilizing iPhone 3G’s new GPS functionality and ability to show map directions, the app would be a fantastic tool when driving around on a Saturday morning looking for garage sales.

How’s that make money? Some possibilities: contextual display advertising sold around the ads as part of the app; location-specific advertising (phone pops up an ad for a restaurant when phone user is near); upsells for garage sale advertisers (photos, video, map highlighting, etc.).

A more sophisticated potential iPhone app: Use the iPhone’s GPS capabilities and auto dealer inventories to allow an iPhone user to find specific cars and get directions to the dealers. The same idea would work well for real estate; drive around town looking for houses and let the iPhone be your guide.

Clearly, other people and organizations will build such applications for the iPhone in the next year or so. But classifieds-related apps are an obvious fit for newspapers. I encourage publishers to get their tech teams working on some iPhone projects now.

Tags: apple, iphone, phones