Europe, US showing strong mobile growth

Previously mobileSQUARED predicted European advertisers would reach the $1 billion mobile mark in 2015. All told, more than 93 million 'Big 5' Europeans will be 'in' the mobile marketplace by the end of 2011.

Android smartphones have the highest mobile penetration in the European marketplace finds comScore with nearly one-quarter of 'Big 5' smartphone users on that platform.

"Smartphone adoption has seen significant growth...driven in large part by the increasing popularity of the Google Android platform," said Jeremy Copp, comScore Europe vice president for Mobile. "Although Symbian continues to lead the EU5 smartphone market, Android is gaining fast and recently passed Apple to become the second most popular platform. Network operators, publishers and advertisers looking to effectively reach the European mobile audience must pay close attention to the continued growth of Android in the region, as it will likely have far-reaching implications for the mobile media landscape."

In the US, meanwhile, 82 million consumers have adopted smartphones with Samsung, LG and Motorola the top handsets.

New data from JumpTap and DigiDay finds that the number one mobile attribute, from a marketer standpoint in the US, is targeting. While the majority of mobile marketers have been in the space for between one and five years they believe the ability to hyper-target through mobile devices leads to more engaged consumers. Also, while only about 6% of ad budgets are now reserved for mobile, marketers expect to increase their mobile spend to 35% of the total over the next year.

Tags: comScore, JumpTap, mobile ads, mobile forecast, mobile handsets, mobile marketing, mobileSQUARED