• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, February 3, 2011

Mobile Summit opening keynoter Jason Spero says we're on the cusp of a wave of innovation in the mobile marketplace that will transform everything.

And he should know. As director of mobile at Google, Spero is in charge of leading Google's mobile initiatives in the Americas.

"From Google's perspective there are some things that are right, and there are some things that are not right with mobile today," Spero noted, adding that at Google, the vision remains, "Mobile first."

To prove it, he showed an image of a mobile first. It was a picture of the Bell Labs engineer who created the first ever mobile phone. Needless to say, it was bigger than an iPad (think of the phone Gordon Gecko's character uses on the beach in the movie "Wall Street").

Fast forward to Motorola's sleek Razor phone, which still is mobile's past, albeit a relatively recent, pre-smart phone past.

Fast forward one more time, this time to this year. In 2011, Spero says, "Half of Americas will be walking around with a smart phone in their pocket, with a rich, personal data experience in their pockets."

""Google saw a four times increase in the U.S. in mobile searches. These are the users," Spero said. "I'm not even talking about the companies in the business yet."