By Jim Shilale

This year will be recognized as one of the most challenging on record for many business sectors, although there are some bright spots in the mobile industry in 2009.

Mobile has had many interesting developments in 2008 and is poised to reap the benefits from innovation and new users entering the marketplace in 2009.

Walk down Main Street USA, and you will see moms with strollers getting email, using Google Maps and looking up local business information on their phones.

The iPhone, G1 and new BlackBerry models brought smartphones and Web-enabled phones out of corporations and into consumers' hands.

This consumer adoption is going hand-in-hand with an increase in advertisers using mobile marketing, including interactive text messaging campaigns and mobile Web sites.

One of the most exciting developments of 2008 was witnessing first-hand the drastic increase in mobile Web usage both in breadth and depth.

We saw existing sites such as CNN, Yahoo, Fox, ESPN and other leading media brands get record numbers of mobile visitors -- sometimes as many or more as online -- especially around the election, big sporting events and fantasy football seasons.

We also saw the entry of a vast number of new mobile sites in industries and segments such as travel, pharmaceutical, automotive, nightclubs, local retailers, grocery stores, music labels, real estate and military.

This number of mobile arrivals was thanks in large part to the combination of consumer adoption and education, the efforts of advocacy groups such as dotMobi and the Mobile Marketing Association and mobile service companies making it easy for agencies and advertisers to get campaign-specific mobile sites up and running quickly.

Another interesting highlight was the use of mobile messaging during the 2008 U.S. presidential election, which may have helped turn the tide for President-elect Barack Obama.

Mobile offered unique opportunities for the presidential campaigns as well as for voting advocacy groups.

These mobile campaigns extended texting beyond teens and college-age mobile users and showed how mobile can move people to action.

So what's to come in 2009?

For starters, we will see new innovative companies unseat some of the market leaders.

Just like we saw ChaCha grow 300 percent last quarter and gain market share from Google SMS and Yahoo SMS, new entrants won't necessarily need relationships with carriers to get their software to market.

Just like the traditional Web went a long way to satisfying consumers' need for instant gratification, we see the mobile Web as finishing the job, allowing instant gratification from anywhere.

This includes social networking activities, which will be carried out via mobile even more in 2009.

Consumers will use the mobile Internet for checking and responding to personal messages, keeping tabs on their friends and uploading pictures and video to personal mobile sites.

Additionally in 2009, marketers will start realizing the advantages of integrating mobile marketing with other channels, instead of simply trying to use it as a standalone marketing tool.

Advertisers will be more interested in multichannel sponsorship opportunities combining television, online and print advertising with SMS text messaging and mobile microsites to extend the reach of their campaigns.

Finally, we are going to see a shift in consumer expectations when it comes to mobile, which will drive more adoption of mobile customer relationship management tools.

Customers will expect to be able to sign up for text alerts instead of, or in addition to, email.

Text messages and mobile Web sites will be commonly used to confirm travel reservations, make doctor's appointments, purchase tickets and send scannable coupons.

As 2008 comes to a close and analysts continue to revise downwards their growth estimates for traditional advertising spending, we have to mention that mobile advertising spend in the United States is projected to break $1 billion for the first time in 2008 and surpass $6.5 billion by 2012, according to eMarketer numbers published in March.

So while ad spends will likely be more scrutinized in 2009, smart marketers are turning to mobile for the distinct advantages it offers over other marketing channels -- it's personal, it's immediate and it's everywhere.

Jim Shilale is vice president of business development at mobile marketing services firm 2ergo, Arlington, VA. Reach him at .