VOA News writes:

New market research has many technology experts thinking the era of the personal computer (PC) is coming to an end as consumers worldwide begin to embrace tablet computers and smartphones.

Figures from the Internet Advertising Bureau UK digital ad spend report show that spending on mobile advertising in the UK exceeded half a billion pounds last year. Mobile advertising grew by 148% to £526 million in 2012 from £203.2 million in 2011.

As a result, mobile now accounts for 9.7% of all digital advertising spending.

Berg Insight has forecast that the real-time mobile location-based advertising and marketing market will grow from a worldwide value of €526 million last year to €6.5 billion (£5.6 billion) in 2017, which is a compound annual growth rate of 65%.

This will be 32.8% of all mobile advertising and marketing, giving location-based advertising and marketing around 5% of the digital advertising market.

O2 UK has created a new tariff that separates the subsidised cost of a mobile phone from a minimum-term airtime contract.

Launching on 16th April, O2 Refresh has a 24-month airtime plan and a separate finance agreement for a ‘phone plan’. Customers who want a new handset before the end of their minimum contract term can pay for the remainder of their Phone Plan and start a new Airtime Plan with no termination fee.

A group of technology companies including Microsoft, Nokia and Oracle has complained to the European Commission about Google’s mobile internet strategy.

The 17 companies are calling themselves FairSearch and describe Google’s distribution of the Android platform as “predatory”.