Mobile Advertising to be a Billion Dollar Business by 2011

Here's something that's hardly surprising. Turns out this newfangled mobile advertising phenomenon may be the real deal after all. While it's pretty clear that mobile internet is going to be the next seismic shift in technology, mobile advertising too will see a huge jump in the not-too-distant future. Market research firm eMarketer has crunched some numbers and arrived at the conclusion that in 2011, mobile advertising will cross the magical billion dollar mark and touch $1.1 billion by year end. And by 2014, that figure will swell up to $2.5 billion. That's a lot of money to jockeying for position in your mobile screen.

This advertising blitzkrieg is obviously driven by an insatiable appetite for smartphones and the rising penetration of high speed mobile internet worldwide. Smartphone owners also tend to be younger, richer and more tech savvy, so it's easy to understand why mobile advertising is growing at a rate faster than social media advertising. According to eMarketers own predictions, social media advertising will grow by a shade over 20% in 2010. Compare that to the growth of mobile advertising - a breathtaking 79% and it's not hard to see which way the wind is blowing.

Of course, the rise of the pocket computer will mean a slow decline in SMS ads, currently still the most popular mobile advertising format. But it will slowly be eclipsed by video and image based ads over the next few years.

Emarketer's previous estimates regarding mobile ad spending were rather more conservative. But Google's AdMob acquisition and Apple's iAd rollout has shaken things up (unsurprisingly!), so once again, the future is wide open. Here's to a billboard in every pocket.