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A handful of companies may keep a closer eye on cell phone-related news, but once the issue of objectivity is taken into consideration, Nielsen Mobile makes a pretty good judge.  And Nielsen Mobile indicates that mobile advertising has reached an important tipping point.

"We believe mobile Internet has reached a critical mass as an advertising medium in the US," a new report states.  "As of May 2008, there were 40 million active users of the mobile Internet in the US . . . .  This provides scalable marketing potential with demographic breadth."

 Mobile Numbers On The Rise

Unfortunately, Nielsen Mobile didn't get into dollar figures or growth forecasts; what the new iPhone and 3G networks will do isn't clear.  Yet, believe it or not, Yahoo seems best positioned to benefit from future developments.

Yahoo Mail was the most popular website with mobile Americans, receiving about 14.2 million users in May.  The runner-up, Google Search, took in only 9.1 million people, and MSN Hotmail scored closer to the 7.9 million mark.  You won't often see a spread like that.

As for international angles, advertising looks set to take off overseas, too.  Nielsen Media puts the U.S. in first place, but the UK, Italy, and Russia aren't far behind.