Mobile Advertising is (Finally) Moving.

You’ve heard the hype, get ready for the reality.

2008 was the year when mobile media began to catch up with the hype, as both consumers and advertisers embraced mobile technologies like never before.

The true turning point for the industry was the introduction of the smartphone, heightened by Apple’s iPhone launch in mid-2007. The development of third-generation (3G) mobile phones led to better connection speeds, Wi-Fi connectivity and the rise of mobile Internet browsing.

Even marketers are catching up.

In light of the heightened activity and interest, eMarketer forecasts that mobile advertising will rise from $648 million in 2008 to $3.3 billion in 2013.

According to the new eMarketer report, Mobile Advertising and Usage, another critical growth driver was pricing plans that took the mystery out of data usage and encouraged unlimited mobile content consumption.

2009 is shaping up to be a challenging year for digital media—but it will also be a year of major opportunity for businesses with effective digital marketing strategies.

In fact, three important factors are converging to make the mobile channel more attractive to marketers:

* Better Phones: The iPhone represents a radical change in the way the mobile industry works, not only with its design and ease of use, but because it is allowing users to escape many of the restrictions previously imposed by the mobile carriers, opening the device to a wide range of advertising and altering the way users receive and interact with marketing messages.

* Improved Networks: The major US carriers (AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint) have successfully implemented most of their 3G network footprints, resulting in a tremendous amount of bandwidth for the advanced browsers powered by smartphones, shifting the mobile experience closer to the online experience.

* Richer Content: US mobile subscribers increasingly access the Internet from their mobile phones, taking advantage of near-seamless connectivity for e-mail, social networking, games, mobile video and downloaded applications. The expectation now is for an open Internet, not the walled garden of the past.

These developments are transforming the way marketers reach and interact with mobile users.

For more information at http://www.emarketer.com