Now you can carry ads around with you!

Vodafone is teaming up with Yahoo(!) to offer lower phone bills for those willing to put up with ads on their handsets. Google's Eric Schmidt reckons phones could even be free in the future for willing marketing-sponges.

Interesting one, this. I cannot overemphasise how many startup companies have recently appeared, drooling at the opportunity of cashing in on the predicted boom in mobile advertising. Mind you, if this boom really does happen, it will happen with the inclusion of GPS in handsets - that's how advertisers will really be able to make use of the mobility aspect to show you, say, special offers from the store round the corner.

Is this a good thing? It could be handy at times, annoying at others. Personally I don't think we're subjected to too few adverts in our daily lives at the moment, but on the other hand hey, we're talking about lower phone bills. Perhaps the middle way is to say yes to having ads on your phone, then just ignore them. Unless they introduce a bill-reduction-per-click model... nah, wouldn't happen. Right?