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According to a number of analysts, the cumulative mobile advertising revenues in Europe's five largest economies (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K.) will top $1 billion in 2015. On its way to this, as a new whitepaper from mobile ad optimization and advertising firm Smaato points out, Europe faces a number of unique challenges. As the report's author, mobileSQUARED's chief analyst Nick Lane notes, the upcoming 2012 London Olympics will be a catalyst for driving total mobile advertising revenues in these countries beyond the $1 billion mark.

Nine times out of 10, if you're walking down the street and you search for "coffee" on your smartphone, it's because you're in serious need of a cup of joe. You don't want a Wikipedia article or a website for coffee aficionados, you want a caffeine injection right now - and Google's on board with you.

Google introduced hyperlocal search ads for mobile devices this morning, bringing you closer to what you want, when you want it.

Blackberry users in the U.S. barely click on mobile ads, while those who own a Symbian-powered phone click on more ads than anybody else. According to the latest data from mobile advertising optimization platform Smaato, the most interesting development with regards to mobile ads in the U.S. over the last month is the fact that click-through rates for users of Apple's iOS devices have increased dramatically.

Earlier this year, Google added clickable phone numbers to its mobile ad offerings, making it easier for smartphone owners to connect with businesses when performing local searches. Today, the company has extended this feature by adding inline maps to business listings on mobile websites and apps in the Google Display Network.

So now, when you're looking for the nearest pizza place and you don't feel like waiting for delivery, you're just one click away from getting directions from your current location in Google Maps.

Earlier this week following the announcement of the iPhone 4, Apple revised the terms of service (TOS) for advertising within applications due to the impending release of its iAd mobile ad service. Apple's new TOS only allows ad networks whose sole business is delivering mobile ads to collect data from those ads, effectively cutting out larger competitors like Google's AdMob. Today, AdMob's founder Omar Hamoui responded to Apple's revisions, which he believes will stifle innovation in the space.

InMobi, one of the world's largest independent mobile ad networks, just announced that plans to enter the U.S. advertising market. The company - which already has offices in San Francisco and has currently served about 2 billion ad impressions in the U.S. following a soft launch in January - is currently one of the strongest mobile advertising players in the Asia Pacific market and also has a strong presence in Africa and Western Europe. In the U.S., InMobi will go up against entrenched players like AdMob, which was recently acquired by Google, and relative newcomers like Apple's iAd and Quattro Wireless.

In preparation for the upcoming ReadWriteWeb Mobile Summit, we're outlining the 10 leading trends of the Mobile Web in a 3-part series of posts. In this the final instalment, we look at three markets for mobile which promise to be hugely valuable: commerce, cloud computing and health. As a reminder, in Part 1 we covered design and development issues and in Part 2 we looked at trending mobile apps such as geo-location and AR.

We'll explore these and other trends with you at the ReadWriteWeb Mobile Summit, a 1-day event we're running on Friday 7 May, in Mountain View, California. That's the day after Web 2.0 Expo (2-6 May), so we hope you'll extend your trip to the West Coast to help us define the future of mobile! To be certain of getting a ticket, we invite you to register now.

It seems like everybody is scrambling to secure a piece of the mobile advertising market these days. Google is still sorting out the details of its AdMob acquisition, but barring any regulatory snafus, the acquisition should go through in the next few months. Apple acquired the relatively unknown mobile advertising network Quattro earlier this month. Today, Opera announced that it has acquired AdMarvel, a San Mateo-based mobile advertising company.

According to a report from eMarketer, based on data from Brightkite, and market research agency Gfk NOP, iPhone users are able to recall ads they've seen on their mobile phone better than users for other mobile devices. Across the spectrum of mobile applications, ranging from surfing the web to playing games and listening to internet-based radio, about 59% of iPhone users recalled ads, while only 38% of non-iPhone users were able to recall ads they had seen on their phones.

This post is the second in a two-part series based on: 1) the African mobile marketplace and how Africans utilize their mobile phones; and 2) how organizations are using social marketing to reach this highly mobile population for social change.

The series is based on a conversation I had with Gustav Praekelt, a mobile entrepreneur located in South Africa. In this post we explore how mobile technology is being used for social good in Africa. See also Part 1 here.