Although mobile media spend is expected to reach $11.6 billion in 2012, it still represents a fraction of consumer spend, according to a new study from Strategy Analytics.

Strategy Analytics? newest ?Global Mobile Media Forecast? looked at the expected differences between consumers' mobile habits and advertising spend. Compared to the $11.6 mobile ad spend, consumer mobile media spend is expected to reach $138.2 billion, showing the wide gap between how consumers are using their device and how marketers worldwide are allocating budgets.

?Partly it has been down to the slow movement of media companies to truly embrace the mobile space and so they end up leaving money on the table,? said David MacQueen, London-based director of wireless media strategies at Strategy Analytics.

?For example, Google only has ads on YouTube on mobile in the U.S., not elsewhere, and once it rolls out advertising properly then ad revenues will increase,? he said.

?Facebook had 432 million users accessing the network on mobile in 2011, yet is still has no advertising whatsoever on its mobile properties. If I were a shareholder, I would be wondering why it is leaving this money on the table. This current lack of revenue is in stark contrast to Japan, where all the social networks generate sizable revenues, almost exclusively on mobile, from both advertising and micro transactions of virtual currencies.?

Mobile spend
Overall, mobile media revenue is expected to reach $150 billion in 2012.

The consumer mobile media spend numbers represent a 13.4 percent increase from 2011, showing how consumers are not only using mobile more, they are also willing to buy things via their devices.

Sixty percent of consumer ad spend is going towards mobile Web browsing and data plans, but applications are also starting to play a role in driving revenue.

App downloads are expected to reach 32 billion by 2012, representing a 32 percent growth from 23 billion apps in 2011. Additionally, apps are expected to account for $26.1 billion in revenue.

Interestingly, in-app advertising is racking up more money than mobile Web advertising, pointing to the growth in the smartphone market.

Per the report, revenue from in-app ads are generating $1.7 billion compared to mobile Web advertising, which totaled $934.5 million.

Apps are also expected to generate $26.1 billion in 2012, marking a 30.7 percent year-over-year increase.

?Across the U.S. and major Western European markets as a whole, revenue from display ads on the mobile Web has been overtaken by in-app advertising,? Mr. MacQueen said.

?This shows that usage of apps is extremely high, and consumers with smartphones are spending more time using apps than browsing,? he said.

?The advertising market is based on usage, so the fact that brands spend more on in-app advertising than the mobile Web is a clear sign that apps are what consumers are using rather than the mobile Web.?

Multimedia to my ears
The study also looked at which types of activities are most prominent on devices.

Music will account for $16 billion in consumer spend by 2012. With the growth in smartphones, ringtone sales are slowly being replaced by revenue from subscription-based music streaming services such as Spotify and Pandora.

The increase in smartphone ownership will also impact mobile video, showing the opportunities for publishers and advertisers to incorporate it into content. Nearly 280 billion mobile videos are expected to be watched in 2012, up from 180 billion in 2011.

However, mobile video is likely to account for only 2.4 percent ? or $3.6 billion ? of total mobile media revenue.

Mobile social media revenue will also increase by 16.1 percent year-over-year for $17.6 billion in 2012.

Although the revenue might not be up to par to other channels, the increased usage numbers should indicate to marketers that mobile is worth investing in.

?Plenty of ad networks, ad exchanges and other companies in the value chain have been rather slow to embrace mobile as well, either lacking any distribution on mobile or selling it separately,? Mr. MacQueen said.

?For many types of advertising, particularly something such as banner ads where specific mobile technologies (e.g. location) are not used, it seems odd to me that in many cases those ads are bought and sold for only one device ? the desktop PC ? while other devices go in a separate bucket,? he said.

?I think with the massive upswing in usage of mobile, the recent success of tablets and all sorts of new consumer electronics devices coming, this artificial distinction will ultimately disappear and brands will be buying digital advertising, not online with one pot of money, mobile with another pot and so on.?

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York