One of the things that I love about the mobile industry and technology in general is the excitement and what some would call hype around new developments. It’s common knowledge that there’s an important gap between new developments and capabilities in the industry and the adoption or even adaption of technologies by the marketplace or what I like to call people.

This gap is an industry of it’s own. Specialists in research, strategy and marketing devote vast resources to giving brands, service providers and others the best possible analysis of this gap and it’s direction or even it’s manipulation. Predictions focus upon this gap and have become a very popular game for the expression of knowledge and understanding by those involved in the technology industry including mobile. Corporate press, bloggers, service providers, hardware makers and application developers have all joined in sharing their speculations about what the next 12 months will reveal for technology adoption, people’s purchasing habits, and the market’s winners and losers.

Who needs one more opinion on what to expect from the mobile market and it’s players in 2008? What you’ll find below is a collection of predictions that will be important to watch in 2008 from their original sources who likely have some special insight into where the mobile industry is likely to shine over the next 12 months. Also, I’ve included a couple WTF predctions just for fun. Can you figure out which are which?

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Chetan Sherma’s predictions take a different tactic by surveying a group of mobile industry players and pundits. One thing to note about this list is it’s obvious western geo-region bias.

Verdict: If wishing could make it so - especially for Mobile Advertising. Fortune 1000 companies have 8% of their advertising dollars budgeted for mobile, according to the Yankee Group. This doesn’t bode well for the type of inventory required to deliver on advertising going mobile in 2008.

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Nellymoser founder and chief strategist, John Puterbaugh, offers a short list of 2008 predictions for Mobile 2.0, Mobile Advertising, Openness and handsets.

Verdict: I like these predictions, but some will clearly take more than 12 months to be realized. Puterbaugh selects areas of development that will be important, although he misses a few that we’ll see more discussed this year.

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The billing platfrom company, Bango, has offered their own set of industry predictions for 2008. Bango focuses on mobile advertising, - anyone see a pattern? - messaging decreasing as browsing increases, mobile commerce and PC and mobile convergence.

Verdict: Huh? The messaging part shows that Bango needs to read Mobile Messaging 2.0. Between alerts, WAP push, more people with interoperable access to SMS, messaging will not recede just because browsing increases.

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IDC’s consumer predictions for 2008 focus on the rise of the mobile internet and LBS.

Verdict: Say what you mean. There are still questions around the terminology and meaning for the next phase of applications and services for mobile devices. When you say mobile internet is that different from the mobile web and how so? When you say mobile internet is that different from WAP browsers and how so? When you say mobile internet is that different from mobile 2.0 and how so?

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FierceWireless Europe writer, Paul Rasmussen, offers Top European Wireless Industry Predictions for 2008. His attention is on changing business models and network technologies. Mobile WiMAX, operator network sharing, the iPhone UI and mobile social networks are highlighted.

Verdict: Cha-cha-cha-changing. One his very first European prediction Rasmussean looks to Sprint in the US. Here’s a tip on Sprint’s WiMAX. The CEO with the vision to initiate WiMAX at Sprint was ousted by an activist shareholder. Bummer.

Also from FierceWireless, but the US version, brings predictions from the US market. Brian Dolan holds his crystal ball up on US carriers including Helio, Sprint, Clearwire, and Verizon Wireless.

Verdict: Dude! It’s not all bad news. Brian focuses mostly on where things this year will fall short. Moto breaks up, Helio perishes, and Verizon’s Openness is absent is a no there, there. He forgot to mention mobile advertising.

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What we take from all these predictions is that the mobile industry continues to be fragmented. Many people will talk about and work to bring advertising to mobile devices. The most energizing and exciting developments are the increased focus on mobile by, well, everyone. With the impact of the iPhone on the mobile industry (i.e., new business models are possible, and UI innovation not lip service) and the engagement of the rest of the web industry (e.g., Yahoo!’s Widgets, Zumobi, iPhone SDK, Google’s Android) 2008 will be a year of great and profound experimentation in all things mobile. Some will even find workable advertising models.