Openwave Systems conducted an analysis of mobile advertising click-through rates that showed clear advantages of targeted mobile promotions.

There is also a growing trend in accessing mobile classifieds via the mobile device. The study also found that subscriber data has always been part of carriers' asset base and that extracting this information and transforming it to gain subscriber insight has been lacking.

"In the current economic climate, better subscriber information and deep subscriber insight may help operators retain and gain customers," said Dan Nguyen, vice president of product management and product marketing at Openwave.

Wireless carriers can play a vital role in the mobile advertising value chain by providing aggregated data on subscriber behavior and preferences to ad networks.

This information allows for better targeting of subscribers that could lead to high CPM rates and better results for publishers, advertisers, carriers and ultimately the subscribers.

Openwave Mobile Analytics also uncovered that Craigslist ranked number 7 within the top 10 search terms on Google from handsets, suggesting a trend towards mobile classifieds for jobs, housing, bargain priced goods and services during the current economic downturn.

Using information collected from Mobile Analytics, carriers can provide similar classified services to registered users based on their unique subscriber profiles.

Social networking remains the No. 1 area of interest to mobile internet users with Facebook and MySpace being the top two search terms on both Google and Yahoo OneSearch.

In terms of average hits per session, MySpace leads Facebook by nearly 46 percent, suggesting that MySpace could become the preferred choice of mobile communication for a particular segment of wireless carrier subscriber base and displace some of the most frequently used email offerings.

The social networking trend presents a unique opportunity for carriers to partner with these leading social networking sites through cobranding efforts with a view to generating incremental revenues from messaging generated from the social networking sites.

"Openwave Mobile Analytics can provide operators invaluable insight to better understand and confidently predict user behavior patterns, as well as position themselves as important players in the mobile value chain," Mr. Nguyen said.