Worldwide mobile media revenues will approach $150 billion in 2012, buoyed by increased consumer spending and growing advertiser interest, according to a new forecast issued by Strategy Analytics.

The mobile media economy is expected to bring in revenues of $149.8 billion in 2012, a 17 percent increase over year-ago totals, Strategy Analytics reports. Subscribers are on pace to spend $138.2 billion on mobile content, applications and services this year, up 13.4 percent from 2011 totals of $121.8 billion. At the same time, advertiser spending on mobile media is expected to increase 85.4 percent year-over-year, growing from $6.3 billion in 2011 to $11.6 billion in 2012.

Data plans and Web browsing will drive 60.2 percent of mobile consumer spending in 2012, generating operator revenues of $82.8 billion, a 9.5 percent increase compared to year-ago totals. Strategy Analytics notes that mobile apps are now the second largest revenue category for both consumer and advertiser spending and are expected to generate 2012 revenues of $26.1 billion, up 30.7 percent from 2011. With consumers expected to download more than 32 billion apps in 2012 (increasing 38 percent from 23 billion last year), revenues from in-app advertising will reach $1.7 billion by year's end, eclipsing revenues from mobile Web display ads ($934.5 million).

The mobile music category remains a leading driver of mobile media revenues and will yield $16 billion in 2012, corresponding with 11.6 percent of consumer spending. Strategy Analytics states that mobile music spending behaviors are changing rapidly, with ringtones declining sharply and streaming services like Spotify, Pandora and Deezer gaining traction in the U.S. and Western Europe.

Mobile social networking is expected to grow 16.1 percent in 2012 to $17.6 billion, representing 11.8 percent of all mobile media revenues. Mobile video consumption is on the upswing as well: Subscribers will view 280 billion videos in 2012, almost triple 2011 totals of 108 billion. But viewership isn't translating into revenue growth, and video will generate just 2.4 percent of mobile media revenues in 2012.

"Low revenues are down [due] to many major mobile video services being free to the end user, either funded by advertising (such as YouTube) or ‘bundled' without additional cost by pay TV providers, such as Sky Go around Europe or AT&T U-verse in the USA," said David MacQueen, Strategy Analytics' director of wireless media strategies. "Despite the huge audience of 271 million users, ad revenues from mobile video are tiny--a meager $223 million globally in 2011. While ad revenues will more than triple to $726 million in 2012, it is still clearly challenging for advertisers looking to reach consumers through video ads on smartphones."

Focusing exclusively on the U.S. market, Strategy Analytics anticipates mobile media revenues will increase by 22.1 percent to nearly $38 billion in 2012. U.S. consumer spending is expected to outperform the global rate by a margin of 15.5 percent to 13.4 percent, growing to approximately $33.7 billion, and advertiser spending is projected to explode 128.9 percent to just under $4.2 billion. In addition, U.S. consumers will spend $6.7 billion on mobile apps in 2012, up 24.6 percent over 2011 and accounting for 20 percent of nationwide mobile spending.