Forever, it seems, we’ve been told that it’s just a matter of time—next year, for sure—that mobile marketing will take off in the U.S. Yet advertising on cell phones remains tiny.

That may be about to change for two reasons: Web-surfing smartphones are selling briskly even in a downturn, and applications for those gadgets—especially Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone and the BlackBerry—are proliferating. That means people are spending a lot more time playing games, watching TV, and shopping on their phones. All that activity translates into what marketers call engagement, a fancy way of saying people are paying attention. Companies, of course, prize that, so they’re looking for mobile applications that are a good fit for their brands.

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