While at the Consumer Electronics Show, I moderated a panel at Digital Hollywood on “Mobile Commerce and Content: The Mobile Web, Texting, Search, and Advertising Options.” As you can see, the panel covered a lot of ground, and I can’t begin to capture it all. But I did take some notes and I’ll share those here.

I need to thank my panelists here for all their insight, and I wish I could have done the session more justice, but look out for any of them at other events as you’re guaranteed to learn a few things.

• Ali Rana, Vice President, Digital Strategy, Dynamic Logic
• Jamie Wells, Director, Global Trade Marketing, Microsoft Mobile Advertising
• Brian Johnson, Senior Vice President, Americas and Asia Pacific, mBlox
• Thomas Roberts, Chief Product Officer, Digital and Mobile Services, kgb
• Pooj Preena, CEO, Groupe Hi-Media USA;
• Greg Fawcett, co-founder, MobiAd Sales

Here are some of the questions covered during the session:

How is 2010 different from 2009 for mobile?

Apple and Google are now in it. Google couldn’t crack mobile alone so it needed AdMob, especially to get a presence in mobile apps along with broadening its reach i mobile display.

Google also made a major impact with Android. The first Android phone debuted in October 2008 and by the end of 2009 there were 20 Android phones on the market globally.

Mergers and acquisition activity overall was strong. One panelist noted, “These large bets were placed for a reason.” Expect a lot of consolidation ahead, especially with the glut of ad networks.

What’s the best mobile advertising model?

Mobile doesn’t have the corollary to search yet – that killer model. And search isn’t as seamless or useful on the phone. Some debate ensued as to how purposeful the consumer activity on mobile was to begin with, as one in particular felt activity skewed more toward time killing activities like casual gaming, while others saw more purposeful usage. My take: any killer model is going to have a heavy focus on local marketing, and that may well transcend search/display/video, web/apps/SMS, and other iterations.

What are challenges for micropayments?

Consumers still largely pay for ringtones, chat, and wallpaper. Carriers take a large chunk of micropayment transactions, as high as 30 to 60 percent. That’s fine for virtual goods with low overhead, but it doesn’t work as well for physical goods. iTunes has established itself in micropayments in a way that Google hasn’t with Google Checkout.

Watch out for Facebook here as it turns on mobile monetization. Its online monetization methods such as advertising and virtual gift payments don’t exist yet in mobile, but they’ll need to turn that on.

How important are all the handsets that aren’t smartphones?

Generally panelists were bullish on them and focus on such handsets, especially internationally in certain markets where smartphones lag far behind the U.S.

Thanks again to all the panelists who were far more eloquent on stage than I am here, but at least now a few others can get a taste of the session.

(Image via Google)

Google announced Monday its plans to acquire mobile display advertising company AdMob for a cool $750 million in company stock. The search giant asserts that “great mobile advertising products can encourage even more growth in the mobile ecosystem” and that together Google and AdMob will work on the future of mobile advertising.

The future looks bright. Mobile phones have rapidly become a main communication channel thanks to enhancements to mobile Internet browsers and the staggering app market boom. Another sign demonstrative of mobile’s emergence is the growth of AdMob itself – in just three years the company has surged to the top of the mobile ad market, serving more than 10 billion monthly impressions across 15,000 sites worldwide.

Here’s what Google says the acquisition will do for the mobile market’s three prime stakeholders:

• For consumers – Expect more mobile content and better, more relevant, mobile ads.
• For publishers (of mobile sites and apps) – The deal will allow for sophisticated products and tools that will lead to more effective monetization solutions.
• For advertisers – Google says marketers will be better equipped to engage consumers in the mobile space by delivering “more relevant ads and greater reach.”

This deal will help propel the mobile industry by encouraging mobile ad spend, which currently pales in comparison to other digital mediums, such as display. Yet given the discrepancies in spend, mobile usage continues to rise to dramatic levels, and advertising must keep pace.

Though the integration between Google and AdMob will not be finalized for a couple of months, the prospective implications of the deal loom large for marketers in the digital space. One thing we know for sure: Google’s status as an industry leader makes the acquisition an effectual vote of confidence for the future of mobile.