By Adam Grenier

The New York Times Technology section highlights a wide range of stories, from electric cars and medical improvements to Twitter trends and digital advertising developments.

However, in a span of 100 articles in early July, 37 were directly related to the mobile marketplace.

Add to that every Twitter, Facebook, Google, and, surprisingly, every World Cup story highlighting their mobile influence, and nearly half of all articles covered the mobile world.

This increase in media coverage is a culmination of various wars within the mobile world that has created enthusiasm amongst those in and out of the mobile business.

Nevertheless, this interest has also created an influx of unjustified decisions.

From branded apps targeting non-smartphone audiences to major publications covering press releases about mobile campaigns with zero success and zero background checks. Sadly, clients, marketers and writers are becoming innocent bystanders of these battles.

To create effective and appropriate strategies, marketers must be aware of how these various battles can influence their mobile marketing decisions.

The device war: iPhone versus Android
This is the title fight, if you will, and the winner is consumers. The phones being released today are amazing devices.

Once an executive gets one in their hands, there is no turning back. Their brand must be part of this experience.

The momentum of this war is the biggest risk. It is easy to get caught up in the excitement and throw money at a device rather than an appropriate audience.

The share of the market is rapidly diversifying, and with that, so is the need for broader, device-agnostic strategies.

The mobile ad war: Rich versus standard versus SMS
IAd alone has created more buzz and insertion orders for an advertising medium than anything since the first neon AT&T banner ad.

For those that have been fighting for mobile as a legit medium for the last five plus years, this has been like striking gold, and boy is it hard to say ?Whoa, slow down.?

But the truth is, the medium has been around for a decade, so as much as it feels like the Wild West, there is an abundance of user data and case studies available to ensure you are not just throwing your money to the wind.

Mobile ads should depend on the goal (direct response, brand, hybrid, etcetera) and the best way to engage with your target audience.

The 4G war: WiMax versus LTE
This is less about the winner and more about the increase in 4G coverage.

The biggest risk here is brands diving in too quickly. With the Evo4G on the market and several more 4G phones hitting the shelves in the next six to 12 months the urge to push creative and services to match the peak technology will be strong.

However, the coverage areas and phones will have limited scale for the immediate future.

If you are targeting early adopters, dive in, have fun, and test the waters for the rest of us. If that is not your audience, make sure to build brand experiences that match a lower common denominator.

The carrier war: AT&T versus Verizon versus Sprint
I actually think this is one of the most important conflicts happening right now. It is easy to get caught up in the swift pace and excitement of gadget advances, but with increased variety in comparable devices, consumers are shifting back and putting more attention to the carriers.

Beside the total price of ownership and coverage areas, users are going to be paying closer attention to data plans now that prominent carriers have introduced tiered pricing.

This might not be immediate, but once consumers get their first over-limit phone bill they will likely become more selective on which apps, videos, sites, and, in turn, brands they spend their time with.

The feature war: Smartphones versus standard phones
Do me a favor, and go find a TV marketing or media manager.

Ask them if they stopped targeting standard televisions as soon as HDTV?s hit the market.

While that might sound ridiculous, the exact phenomenon is happening in the mobile space.

As soon as someone tastes the sweet ROI of an iPhone campaign they pull the plug on everything else.

The fact remains that only 20 percent of Americans are using smartphones, 25 percent of whom are on iPhones.

While yes, conversion on an iPhone can be great, ceasing marketing to the other 95 percent of users is a huge missed opportunity.

SMS campaigns still garner some of the strongest results in the market, and most standard phones are introducing apps and features that are prime real estate for brands to enrich the user experience.

The shortcut war: apps versus WAP
Ask nearly anyone in the mobile industry and they will tell you that apps have hit (or are near hitting) their ceiling.

As mobile standards, coverage and connection speeds improve, and devices diversify, the need to build one off applications will quickly lose out to the universality of building rich WAP enabled Internet experiences.

This does not mean there is no place for branded apps (Just ask Zippo and Epicurious), but keep in mind that it is quickly becoming just as easy and fulfilling to create a shortcut on your phone as it is downloading an entire piece of software.

When you throw in the debates surrounding tablets, location based services and social networks, the attention to mobile is endless.

Plus, these wars are being fought by some of the most influential tech and telecom companies of the world, and used by equally influential brands.

The mobile industry is evolving at an amazing pace, and being ahead of those changes is just as important as being informed of them.

Adam Grenier is marketing manager of mobile at Zoosk Inc., San Francisco. Reach him at .