Mobile search to be one of top smartphone apps

Mobile search to be most-used smartphone app by 2012

Business advisory firm Deloitte is predicting that mobile search applications will become one of the five most-used smartphone applications by the end of 2010.

According to Deloitte, mobile search revenues in 2010 are projected to be a modest $1-2bn (£637m - £1.27bn), but by 2012, Deloitte predicts that Smartphone shipments could pass the half-billion mark. In the same year, the company believes that search could generate the bulk of the $7.2bn (£4.6bn) mobile advertising market.

Deloitte Telecoms partner Tony Cooper pointed out that in the past, mobile search tended to frustrate rather than delight users.

However, he said: "In light of improvements and near-term potential, mobile search’s popularity is expected to grow significantly, and could eventually, in a number of contexts, become superior to search via a PC.”

Although Cooper predicted that this function could prove lucrative to advertisers and the providers of such services, he pointed out some hurdles it would need to clear first.

“Mobile search engine developers will need to consider how best to format user interfaces to ensure that search can be used in a variety of environments - such as at home, at work or while walking,” explained Cooper.

Technologies such as voice recognition, for those in charge of vehicles, or visual search, driven by images, rather than text, are just some examples of interface formats Cooper pointed to.

The prediction that mobile search applications will become one of the biggest growth areas for mobile is one that technology companies are heeding, as evidenced by recent industry acquisitions such as that of mobile search technology provider MotionBridge by Microsoft in 2006 and voice services provider Tellme in 2007, again by Microsoft.

Additionally, Apple acquired mobile advertising company Quattro Wireless for $275m (£169m) in January. Last autumn, Google picked up AdMob for $750m (£478m), a deal yet to be rubber- stamped by the US Federal Trade Commission.