Mobile ad company Placecast: Augmented reality will take off, sort of

1020 Placecast, a San Francisco location-based advertising company, has released a list of seven predictions for mobile advertising in 2010. Among them: Augmented reality will begin (but only begin) to take off, while Apple will solve the battery issues that put a hamper on location-based advertising on the iPhone.
Since Placecast is a mobile ad company itself, it’s not making these predictions aren’t exactly objective. Still, the company seemed to be pretty accurate in its predictions for 2009.
Anyway, here’s the list. (The bolded portions are a direct quote from Placecast’s predictions, while the rest of the text is my summary.)

Augmented reality gets traction, but will remain a bell and a whistle compared to map and list view — This technology, where location-based data is overlayed on images of the physical world, will start showing up more frequently on mobile phones, but consumers will still prefer regular maps, and marketers won’t have any big success.
The iPhone will solve the GPS battery drain problem — Apparently, location-based advertisers feel hamstrung on the iPhone because users can’t run GPS in the background, so advertisers can’t automatically deliver messages about nearby deals as a consumer is out and about. Apple will solve the battery issues next year, though the company may not decide to let advertisers take advantage of this.
Geo-fencing goes mainstream — This technology creates a “virtual field” around a location. If a user steps into the field, they get a marketing message. In 2010, marketers will really start using geo-fencing.
Smart retailers will link CRM databases into mobile marketing to deliver a new experience — By linking data about past customer behavior with mobile marketing, stores can deliver more personalized deals and messages.
Carriers will open up location to brands — Specifically, Placecast predicts that “at least one Tier 1 and one Tier 2 carrier” will allow users to share their location data (which the carriers already have) with marketers.
Smart-coupons will incorporate time and context — The recession has spurred new interest in money-saving coupons, and we’ll see more customized coupons delivered to mobile phones next year.
Location data emerges as a new mine for marketing insights — Marketers will start using rich location data — not just where you are, but also the weather, traffic, and demographics of that location — to tailor advertising messages.

1020 Placecast recently raised  $5 million in funding.