eMarketer has updated its predictions for US mobile advertising revenues, claiming this year will be the first time that market has passed $1 billion. In fact, it reckons US brands will spend $1.23 billion on mobile ad campaigns this year, nearly double last year’s figure of $743 million. eMarketer also thinks this will rise to $4.4 billion by 2015. However, the format most relevant to app developers is display advertising – eMarketer’s figures include search and messaging too. For display, the company thinks this year’s US total will be $376 million. The predictions came as Google launched a new site designed to give brands, marketers and other mobile industry people a resource for data on how people are using their smartphones. It’s called Our Mobile Planet, and includes the full dataset from Google’s ‘Global Mobile Research: The Smartphone User & The Mobile Marketer” survey conducted earlier this year with Ipsos and the Mobile Marketing Association. Or, as they describe it: “One of the the most extensive, far reaching standardized surveys on smartphone user behavior ever conducted”.