Mobile Advertising to spike from $1.7 billion to $2.7 billion in 2008

A new research report from Gartner on the state of mobile advertising worldwide has predicted huge growth in the industry in 2008, stating a 58% increase in revenue from $1.7 billion to $2.7 billion.

The report also predicts a $12.8 billion industry by the end of 2011.

Tole Hart, research director at Gartner, explains: “Innovative developments, such as minimising the number of keystrokes required to access information, using the phone’s camera to improve the overall user experience and tying content or shopping location relevancy to advertisements will move the market forward.”

However, the report goes on to explain that there are obstacles the mobile devices industry will have to overcome in order to drive growth. The report names two key issues as ‘Ease of use' and ‘Relevancy to customers.’ Relevancy in particular is seen as important because a mobile device is very personal to the consumer, and filling it with irrelevant advertising is only going to make the user feel detached from the unit.

The report goes on to describe the potential of GPS functionality to aid locational advertising, but says that the capability, cost and market penetration of GPS technology is currently too low.

Other impediments to growth in mobile advertising include the slow global adoption of mobile multimedia, form factor issues, the diversity of platforms, and complexities regarding privacy, ease of access and value chains. Hart continues: “Many of these issues will be resolved during the next two years, but the make-or-break question of mobile advertising is: Will customers accept advertisements, and can brands and advertisers drive revenue via mobile advertising?”