While this blog, as with pretty much anyone dealing in mobile apps, is likely to be diverted for much of the time by the wonder of the iPhone, it's well worth remembering that there is another 99% of the mobile market which is, frankly, non-iPhone.

So how do we address this market through mobile apps, and who out there is going to receive them?

These were questions facing the Home Office recently in their battle against the scourge of knife crime. The demographic is challenging for any marketer - 11-16 year-olds in deprived urban areas and therefore iPhone, with its high tariff, is clearly out of the question.

What the agencies involved (Saint, and MIG - my current abode for purposes of full disclosure) came up with, was Pocket Beatz, intended to be a music studio for your mobile. Loaded with cool samples, loops and synths, Pocket Beatz was built as a java application, and therefore able to be downloaded by the majority of mobile phones, including some low-end phones relevant to the demographic. Embedded in the application is the campaign message, and also links to the campaign's Bebo mobile page.

The app contains a viral feature that reads the user's phone book and enables the user to send it to all their friends in one go, this creating the possibility of multiplying the reach of the campaign's media.

But how do you reach this demographic with a mobile application? This youth audience are not heavy users of mobile operator portals, but there are opportunities to reach them. Firstly, there are mobile versions of Bebo and MySpace with the right self-selecting demog, and it is also possible with some publishers to use handset targeting to ensure that only low-end handsets see the campaign's banners.

Then there is the potential to go route-one with your application, via networks of Bluetooth units in buses, cinemas, football stadia etc around the country. These can be bought on a cost-per-download and thus represent very good, and accountable, value. And as they can be bought on a location-by-location basis, you can tie in your distribution with where you hope your audience will be, in this case national Knife Crime hotspots.

So, while the other mobile players, who have been left behind by Apple in the application arms race, are trying to catch up - RIM (Blackberry), O2, Vodafone, Nokia, Google and so on - there still remains good mileage in taking a piece of creative, making it mobile, and getting it out to the right people.

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Tim Dunn is the head of marketing services at Mobile Interactive Group.  Tim has been the architect of many successful marketing campaigns, helping brands and the public sector exploit the unique properties of mobile.