While online advertising is gradually entering its “golden age” another advertising market is also on its way up.

Mobile advertising, the future golden boy of the advertising industry, got a fresh thrust in its upward journey with Google’s acquisition of AdMob for $US750 million in May 2010.

With Apple concocting its own plans for the market this look like it is just the beginning of the era of mobile advertising.

But just how big is the mobile advertising market?

According to figures from JP Morgan, mobile advertising market in the US alone is expected to grow by 45% during 2010 to $US3.8 billion.

Out of this, SMS advertising will get $3.2 billion, mobile display will gather around $253 million and mobile search would be worth $321 million.

That’s not all that is to make the mobile advertising market look irresistible for the big boys. Check this out:

• Experts say that smartphone orders will soon exceed those of both desktops and notebooks by second half of 2012
  
• Smartphones are also expected to overtake non- Internet-enabled handsets by the end of next year
  
• The use of mobile apps and mobile browsers doubled past year
  
• U.S. passed Japan as the country with the most 3G users last year, with more than 123 million to Japan’s 99 million.
  
• Apple iPad was one of the fastest-growing new consumer computing devices ever” — taking just 28 days to sell a million units

So as people make a change in their habits and decide to consume media whenever and wherever they want i.e. through mobile, more marketers are looking to take advantage of the capabilities, extended reach, great returns that mobile advertising provides.

And this has got the two big boys of digital advertising to once again gear for the showdown – this time in mobile advertising market.

Google got AdMob last month and it’s not a secret that Apple had launched a bid for AdMob in late 2009, which did not work out.

So Apple purchased Quattro and has recently announced their entrance into mobile advertising with iAds, using Quattro’s technology. Steve Jobs estimates (predicts rather) that iAds would represent 48% of the mobile advertising market in the second half of 2010.

Apple Draws First Blood

Apple struck first... and right where it knew would hurt its chief rival the most.

Very shrewdly, Apple recently came up with a new amendment to iPhone advertising policy which, though allows rival advertising providers to serve advertisements on iPhone applications, restricts the advertising providers' gathering of targeted information from iPhone users.

By holding back the one thing that makes such advertising so valuable to the advertising buyer - on a device which has a 28% share in the smartphone market - Apple has declared that it is out for Google’s blood.

I suggest students and marketers to keep an eye on the mobile advertising landscape – it is all set to go through some major ups and downs over the next few months.