In the industry it’s a perenial joke that at the beginning of any given year, that year will be announced as the year of the mobile. This year however mobile and the convergence of mobile and computing especially has a good chance of being seen as the topic of the year so far.

The year opened with one highly anticpated launch, which didn’t go quite according to plan, that for the Google Nexus One phone. More recently, Apple have released the iPad Tablet to a curious mix of worship and bewilderment.

For me though, one of the most signifcant announcements again came from Apple, and it wasn’t the iPad, but the fact that they were staffing up to meet what they see as the growing demand for mobile internet advertising. Whilst so much attention has been focused on the iPad and other readers as the combined saviours of the mobile and content industries, the iPhone and other smart phones have been steadily expanding the mobile internet marketplace.

One of the affiliate networks that I deal with has been so impressed with the rise of the mobile internet that they are now looking to develop an affiliate program specifically for internet on the mobile. Again initially this will focus on products and services that have an inbuily relevancy to mobile, things like SIM cards, download subscription services etc.

Why is this happening now, and why do I personally believe that we are seeing the dawn of real mobile monetization opportunities as opposed to another over confident false prediction. Previously most of the monetization opportunities through mobile seem to have been based on solutions that push messages to customers, most notably through text messages.

Greater availability of mobile internet, and how this is used as a proactive medium, with users searching for things they are actually interested in rather than reacting to messages that are pushed to them. I believe will be a game changer in terms of the effectiveness of mobile advertising.

As reported previously in this blog, through apps and notably the Apple appos store, mobiles have already been offering a much greater access to monetization opportunity. My feeling is that this will continue to develop, and not only will this year, but a number of years to come will all be seen as the year of mobil monetization opportunities.

Rob, MD, One