With the iPhone playing such a crucial role in the growth of AT&T wireless business in recent years, the question of what will happen when, and if, the company loses its exclusive deal for the signature Apple device has always loomed ominously in the background. The Verizon iPhone rumors have kicked up again lately, with speculation the fabled pairing will finally appear this fall.

For the first time, Verizon Wireless became the world leader in mobile data revenue in the first quarter, with $4.5 billion in sales. That total might've been even higher had the company collected an $18,000 cell-phone bill from a Boston-area man whose son had racked up that amount in charges over six weeks by tethering the phone to a PC to connect to the Web.

Banking a huge $20 million funding round, mobile social gaming company Booyah has raced ahead of rivals like Foursquare and Gowalla in venture capital-raising.

Measurement has long been cited as one of the barriers to higher spending in mobile advertising. The fragmentation across devices and operating systems, lack of a common set of standards and lack of cookie-based tracking, among other factors, keep marketers and agencies from pushing more aggressively into the space, or at all. The lack of the equivalent of the gross ratings point in digital media is still cited as a hurdle to increased online ad spending and basic questions about the efficacy and reliability of Web measurement and audience tracking still fill industry conference halls.

It looks like Google may have gotten a bit of help from Verizon Wireless in its quest to snag AdMob. Earlier this week, The New York Times reported the Federal Trade Commission received a two-week extension for its review of Google's $750 million purchase of AdMob so it could have more time to analyze the impact of Apple's acquisition of rival ad network Quattro Wireless and its subsequent unveiling of the iAd platform.

At the appalooza that is OMMA Mobile 2010, one of themes that emerged early in the day is the role of mobile apps in expanding a company's customer base. The idea is to think of an app not just for branding or reaching existing users but reeling in new ones. "The fact that we've been able to untether people from the computer has been incredibly helpful," Ted Hong, chief marketing officer at Fandango, said. Among the untethered is Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who Hong revealed had used the Fandango app 60 times in the last year to get movie tickets. …

With the heat on Facebook from Congress and advocacy groups over the privacy implications of its Open Graph initiative, it seems like a strange time for the social network to extend its reach into the physical world via a new location-based service. Not only would Facebook be able to track everywhere you travel online, but everywhere you turn up in the real world as well.

A new forecast from UK-based Coda Research Consultancy predicts mobile ad spending in the U.S. will grow at an average rate of 37% annually in the next five years to hit $2.2 billion by 2015. That's roughly a quadrupling from the $546 million the firm estimates will be spent this year and impressive growth by almost any measure.

Is 2010 the real Year of the Smartphone? Some had applied that label to 2009 because of the booming demand for high-end devices despite an otherwise anemic mobile phone market. But during the first quarter, smartphone growth continued to surge, with worldwide shipments up almost 57% from a year ago, according to new data from market research firm IDC. What's more, that increase easily outpaced the 38% growth from the fourth quarter, typically the strongest sales period for mobile devices.

There isn't much for any of the major wireless carriers or handset makers to crow about in terms of market share gains in first three months of 2010, according to new data from comScore. But they can take some consolation in the growing proportion of customers using their phones to access content and services.