Preparing for the APPocalypse

Borrell Associates forecasts that U.S. spending for ads delivered by mobile apps will explode from $305 million this year to $685 million next year and more than $8 billion by 2015 -- with $1.2 billion of that coming from local advertisers.

Almost 5 billion apps have been downloaded to mobile devices since Apple's App Store opened in 2008. Eighty percent of those have been free, but users have spent $1.5 billion on the rest. In Part II of Borrell's 2010 U.S. Local Mobile Advertising & Promotions Forecast, the firm estimates that about one in every five computing devices in the nation can receive mobile ad messages today. By 2015, that ratio will triple to three in every five, fueling much of the growth in mobile ad spending, and by then the line between "mobile devices" and personal computers will be practically irrelevant.