The speedy penetration of mobile companies into Indian communications market resulted in an increased use of handheld cellular devices and this has implications for Indian marketers. The use of Short Messaging Service (SMS) to access customers in India through handheld devices is gaining popularity, making the mobile phone a new medium for one-to-one marketing. This article is based on the empirical study conducted by the authors on M-Commerce in India and highlights the issues and challenges involved in mobile advertising in the Indian marketing scenario. It is concluded that mobile advertising may sometimes amount to invading customer's privacy and therefore efforts should be made by Indian marketers to devise effective means to take cognizance of the privacy issue. Understanding the consumers' attitude towards mobile advertising helps firms in designing effective advertising strategies.

The rapid increase in the usage of mobile phones and other mobile devices by Indian consumers has created a new channel for marketing, known as mobile advertising. The use of Short Messaging Service (SMS) to access customers in India through handheld devices is gaining popularity, making the mobile phone a new medium for one-to-one marketing. On account of this, a new trend of advertising arose by which advertisements for products and services are sent as short textual messages through SMS by various companies in the Indian marketing context. The rising popularity of SMS has created a new channel for advertising in India, known as mobile advertising. The speedy penetration of mobile companies into Indian communications market resulted in an increased use of handheld cellular devices and this has implications for Indian marketers. Since mobile phone is a very personal device that allows an individual to be accessed virtually any time and anywhere, mobile advertising is increasingly becoming a personalized marketing effort and may take different forms.

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