With every passing day there are hundreds of thousands of mobile devices activated. With each activation there’s a shift from using conventional methods of information intake to using that mobile device. To reach their intended audiences, advertisers will need to shift their focus and recognize mobile as a legitimate place for advertising.

As Richard Ting writes in The Atlantic, right now the amount of mobile advertising is disproportionate to the amount of time people spend on mobile devices. He predicts that advertising spending will follow as mobile enters its “golden age.” He defines the characteristics of mobile that are driving its growth as diversity, quality, innovation, experimentation, and the influence its having on society.

• Diversity in the numerous ways ads can be displayed, such as: mobile ad units, mobile apps, mobile web, etc.
• Quality of work that companies are putting forth into mobile with top-quality designers and developers working on apps and ads.
• Innovation and experimentation with products and services, as companies push the envelope of mobile, leveraging everything mobile devices can do to put more information at a user’s fingertips.
• The influence that mobile has on society, as we continue to spend more and more time on mobile devices

With the majority of the word still using “dumb-phones,” it’s clear that the mobile space will only continue to grow. Advertisers and companies need to be aware of this and appropriate their advertising budgets accordingly. Failure to do so in the future will result in these companies failing to reach their targeted audiences and losing out on potential business to competitors who embrace the mobile space.