When Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the stage at the recent Worldwide Developers Conference, the reaction of the audience verged on rock star adulation, and that was before he even announced the big news of the day: the new iCloud paradigm. Fully embracing cloud computing unlike any other company, with the possible exception of Google, iCloud serves as a music, app, photo, document and other data synchronization process that maintains up to 10 different user devices updated with a variety of content, whether originated by the user or purchased outright. Amidst the hoopla surrounding the announcement came various other introductions to iOS 5 and Apple’s new email services, which have a more immediate impact on email marketers.

A Finger Swipe Will Bring up the Notification Center Animation

Scott Forstall, the head of iOS software for the market leading iPhone and iPad, trumpeted that mail is the most often used application on the various i devices. This latest release adds various goodies such as addresses that can be dragged from one place to another, the ability to flag specific messages and a search function that can burrow through your entire inbox to find particular text strings. Although these are welcome features, the Notification Center seems to be of great interest to email marketers. This section at the top of the i screens relays missed calls, messages and email in an animation. These notifications will no longer pop up as in earlier iOS versions but be accessible by a finger swipe across the top of the screen.

The From Line & Preheader Will Have to Carry Even More Weight

The Notification Center places an entirely new emphasis on From lines, subject lines and/or preheaders. Judging from the screenshots shown at the conference it seems that the new feature will display the sender and approximately 80 characters of preheader. If this is indeed the graphical approach taken in the final release of iOS 5 this fall, then email marketers may have to front-load a majority of their ammunition into these two lines, making the From line and preheader/subject line not just more important than ever for Apple i device subscribers, but essentially the only important thing.

The From Line Is Too Prominent to Be Wasted on a Name

Welcome to the world of the iSoundbite. You have two lines to make your proposal to the iPhone and iPad carrying masses or your open rates will dwindle down to the goose egg stage. Since the From line is definitely featured prominently and at the top in bold, this form of notification may trigger a renaissance in the art of the sender name. Will whimsical sender names such as F. Stop Fitzgerald at Flasssh Photo, Selma Junkoff at Bidd Auctions, Natalie Attired at Modah Fashion or C. Colin Backslash at DOS Data Services become the way to grab iAttention, or will the names end up being more tightly tied into the subject matter, such as Eel Electronics Discount Voucher This Week Only, or You’re Invited To The VIP Event At Snore Sleep Center?

I Sing the Preheader Electric

What form of 21st century poetry will arise from the efforts of email marketers everywhere to cram complete attention grabbing calls to action within those two precious little lines animating at the top of i screens? Is the next Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson or e e cummings lurking in some marketing cubicle waiting to unleash I Sing the Preheader Electric upon an unsuspecting world?

Whichever email marketer first masters the art of drafting two-line combinations that will grace the top of i devices everywhere will find themselves in a very envious, and lucrative, position. The Apple world is yours for the taking, if you’re up to the task!