Why does mobile advertising work better than online advertising?

In my admittedly biased opinion, mobile advertising works better for the following reasons:

1) Relevance: First and foremost, mobile advertising has the ability to be more relevant than any other advertising medium. Consider the following scenario:

You’re walking downtown, looking for a place to grab lunch. You search on your phone for “restaurant”: included in the search results, is an ad for a lunch spot (because your phone knows the time of day; let’s assume it’s noon) that’s 0.4 miles down the street on your right hand side (because your phone knows your location), has a great patio (because your phone knows what the temperature is and based on the fact that it’s a sunny day will dynamically suggest outdoor establishments close by) and within the ad a discount code for one free appetizer if you spend $15.00 or more will be embedded.

Dynamic mobile ads aren’t quite this robust yet, but you can imagine the future possibilities.

2) Targeting: As highlighted above, a desktop computer doesn’t go where you go, so location specific targeting is not an option like it is on a smart phone. Ultimately, the more accurately you can target your advertising and the more engaging an experience you can deliver, the more effective the advertising will be.

3) Engagement: With the ability to advertise within mobile apps, you can target specific applications that cater to a specific demographic and engage them in ways that traditional online advertising does not allow, e.g., Bing’s partnership with the immensely popular mobile game Angry Birds