This is helped by a couple of things. One is a drift away from P2P services because of online threats and because users acknowledge that free pirate downloads are not sustainable.
Spending limit
More importantly, households have reached their spending limit. US households are typically spending $260 a month on communications services that didn't exist a generation ago, i.e., internet, mobile, pay TV, PVR.
But the signs are, no doubt encouraged by the economic slump, that they want to spend no more. 'People are now starting to say, I don't want to spend another $30-$40 month on digital subscriptions,' says Cole.
'Most will subscribe to two or three digital services and maybe not even that,' he says.
The upshot is that attitudes to mobile ads have shifted, particularly in the last nine months. 'People are now willing to make the same deal with the web and mobile that they made with television a generation ago, which is advertising as the price of free content,' Cole says.
Operators and mobile ad firms have waited eight years to hear that. The recession might be just the opportunity they've been waiting for.
Robert Clark is a technology journalist
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