Mobile experts have been touting, “This year is the year of mobile,” for the past five years.  And then every year as December rolls around, we start hearing, “Next year is truly the year of mobile.” Well, this year, I wouldn’t count on a getting a “2012 is the year of mobile.” Because 2011 seems to be the real- deal for the mobile industry.

A recent Forrester Report, “Understanding The Changing Needs Of The US Online Consumer” touted mobile as one of the most important pieces of the marketing pie. The report found, “The percent of mobile users who report texting on a monthly basis jumped from 54 percent to 61 percent, with more and more older users making a foray into communicating beyond phone calls alone.” The report also found 25 percent of mobile users now log onto the mobile internet, and that more and more users are using phones as a media source (i.e. to access music, videos, television).

Overall, every aspect of mobile usage is continuing to grow.

Every marketing and advertising conference is adding mobile panels and workshops at the request of attendees. More and more successful mobile conferences are being developed to satisfy the need of brands looking to integrate mobile into marketing plans, and engage consumers on the one object they just can’t leave home without.

Even Facebook recently gave mobile the thumbs up. At the Inside Social Apps conference last month, Facebook CTO Bret Taylor said “Mobile is our primary focus for our platform this year.  Mobile usage has been the fastest growing part of the Facebook experience.” He added that 200 million people accessed Facebook via a mobile device. Even more intriguing, those mobile users are more than twice as active as the computer-using crowd.

Personally, and maybe most importantly, we’ve also noticed more and more big brands and agencies sending out RFPs for mobile CRM solutions, not just one-off projects. Brands are finally seeing and understanding the value of mobile.

So my answer?  Yes, 2011 is the year of mobile.

You can follow Matt on Twitter @WaterfallMobile or read more from him at Mobile Demystified.