The rise of mobile search?

Ideas for all sorts of services to mobile users abound and have been around for the past couple of years. Nothing significant has happened thus far as the mass adoption of multimedia mobiles has yet to take place especially because users climb the learning curve very slowly and tend to use their devices mainly for telephony. Yet forecasts about mobile services that can be "monetized" remain fairly bullish. Here are a few factors that will likely change that:
1. devices with pre-installed IP telephony client software are hitting the market
2. the iPhone's impact will be felt both in terms of consumer adoption and in terms of strong influence on the design of devices by other manufacturers, thus setting new standards of usability
3. new forms of wide area IP connectivity will make it more affordable for people to be always on while on the move

clipped from www.dmconfidential.com Mobile Search: The New Frontier Recent figures released by The Kelsey Group expect U.S. mobile search revenues to reach $1.4 billion by 2012.  In 2007 this figure was $33.2 million, and 2008 is expected to see a figure of around $102.3 million. Spain was the most willing to pay for their search services, while avoiding the sight of ads in their mobile search experience, with 51% indicating so.  Consumers in the U.S. were also receptive to this idea, with 49% supporting this notion.  Consumers in the U.K., however, were least open to this idea, with only 38% saying they would take this option.