At the AlwaysOn media conference, Cyriac Roeding, a CBS VP made excellent points about what is needed to grow mobile advertising. I have long believed that growth in mobile advertising is going to be critical for the success of the mobile internet because it will help subsidize content and services to attract the early-majority users.

He laments that mobile advertising accounts for only 0.2% of all advertising spend, when the majority of adults in the developed world have these devices and advertisers have learned that users are 10X as likely to click through on mobile as online. He cries out for greater simplicity for users and for advertisers. “Don’t try to duplicate the online experience, mobile is different.” It took the iPhone to convince handset makers that the phones need to be simpler to use. Advertisers are perplexed by the different standards for mobile content and advertising, and cannot create effectively for this medium.

The industry is getting in its own way and must consider the needs of the users and the advertisers for us to realize the full potential of this technology.