Ovum has described the first in a proposed suite of tools to measure mobile media consumption as a "modest but much needed first step" in defining a commercial framework for mobile advertising.
Eden Zoller, a principal analyst at the research house, said that the sector had so far failed to generate significant revenues because of a "lack of standardised metrics for measuring audience engagement".
Despite the fact that the market had been around for a decade and had high levels of interest from advertisers, most companies beyond big brand names such as Coca Cola and Unilever did not automatically include it in their budgets.
But the lack of a "well-defined commercial framework" had created a fragmented market and made it "harder for brands to do business", said Zoller. Because they lacked the necessary tools to "learn about user behaviour and measure audience engagement – both important elements in making the case for a clear ROI - they saw mobile advertising as a 'risky proposition'," she added.
But the GSM Association (GSMA), which represents nearly 800 mobile operators, hopes that the UK launch of its Mobile Media Metrics service will boost market growth by providing customers with anonymised mobile internet usage data from the country’s five providers – O2, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile and 3UK.