Analyst firm The Kelsey Group has issued a report claiming that US mobile advertising revenues will rise from $160 million in 2008 to $3.1 billion in 2013.

Whether that prediction comes true or not depends on the wider economy and advertising market, obviously. In other words: who knows?

But mobile games firms looking to generate new revenue streams from advertising will be hoping the reality meets The Kelsey Group's prediction.

However, a big chunk of that predicted $3.1 billion will come from mobile local search advertising - $1.3 billion - as people search for local information and content from their handsets.

"As mobile data consumption rises, we expect local marketing to be a big winner," says Michael Boland, program director

of the company's Mobile Local Media division.

"There is a strong correlation between local search and the mobile use case, which will cause a good portion of the ongoing mobile application boom to focus on local."

Whether mobile games can tap into this forecast boom in local advertising remains to be seen.