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Mobile Search In 2012

Smartphone-BlackberryTablets will increasingly drive mobile search and eCommerce trends. Mobile payments will be tied more closely with coupons. And voice search competition will continue to heat up. These are the top three trends that J.P. Morgan analysts say will drive search marketing in 2012.

Search in apps and on engines such as Bing and Google will drive mobile commerce. This is a fact that marketers are aware of and don't need an analyst to confirm -- and probably is the reason that Google will introduce a tablet this year. 

The research firm eMarketer estimates that mobile commerce sales will grow at a compound annual rate of 55% from 2010 to 2015, including 73.1% growth expected this year. In 2011, U.S. mobile commerce sales -- including travel -- rose 91.4% to $6.7 billion. Continued strong growth will boost sales to $31 billion in 2015. 

Mobile search on engines such as Bing and Google, along with searches in applications, will also help to drive mobile commerce sales from smartphones and tablets.

While this may seem obvious, Piper Jaffray analysts in a published research note wrote that mobile advertising is likely to become the next wave of interactive advertising, growing rapidly during the next five to 10 years. "Given Google's position with Android at over 50% of smartphone sales in Q3 and growing usage share, we expect the company's announced $2.5 billion mobile revenue run rate to continue to grow in the high double to low triple digits into 2012," analysts wrote.

While Google's mobile segment grew 150% from last year's Q3 announcement of a $1 billion run rate, Piper Jaffray analysts expect Google's mobile business to continue to grow in the high double to low triple digits this year. "Given our expectations, mobile revenue could exceed $4 billion in 2012 or roughly 9% of revenue," analysts wrote.

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