Mobile ads expected to bloom this year as m-commerce matures

Tuesday, March 8, 2011 - 09:28 by Simon Crisp

All the statistics suggest that more people than ever before are enjoying safe shopping online from their mobile phones, with search giant Google now predicting that mobile advertising will come of age in 2011, to capture the attention of consumers who are leading the way.

The internet has been fuelled by advertising for many years and most people have acclimatised to the concept of banner ads and sponsored search results supporting all of the sites and services which they get for free.

Now it looks like mobile users will be getting used to a similar move, as the experts believe more companies will be taking advantage of modern software and smartphone hardware to sell their wares.

At the moment there are a number of ways for adverts to enter the mobile sphere, with mobile sites seen as the most basic option. Now the proliferation of apps across all major platforms and the birth of in-app advertising is going to mean more ads in more areas of your mobile experience.

Google's UK MD, Matt Brittin, spoke at the Digital Media Conference this week and outlined how his firm is gearing up for further frantic growth in the number of people who are buying smartphones and then using them to carry out safe shopping online.

He said that with an estimated billion people using mobiles to surf the web, it is easy for big advertisers to rake in huge profits from running just a single campaign that is targeted at smartphone owners.

Not everyone is convinced that mobile advertising is ready to hit the big time, with the opposing view being that many people will stick to shopping from their desktop PC or laptop, until the speed of mobile internet connections is able to match that of home setups.