It’s that time of year again — when industry experts look back on the year that was and start predicting what will be hot (and not so hot) for the new year. As mobile savants, we at xAd got together to assemble a list of our own, so businesses know what to expect in 2012. Some bold and some not so much, our predictions for the next 12 months all share a common thread — 2012 will cement mobile as a viable marketing medium.

So enjoy our list. And if you have predictions of your own to add, feel free to leave them in the comments below.

Prediction 1: Greater Social Integration on the Mobile Web

Without question, mobile is a local medium used to incite immediate response, with consumers increasingly using their smart devices as action tools to search for and contact local businesses. But smart devices are also beginning to satisfy the overall cyclical purchase process, from pre-purchase research to post-purchase feedback.

When it comes to research, most consumers still regard purchase recommendations from their peers, while feedback is commonly left in the form of ratings and reviews — all of which have become shareable and more influential thanks to the social Web. As mobile plays an integral role in the purchase process, social integration will take a front seat on the mobile Web in 2012. For businesses, that means claiming and monitoring your profile pages, creating a mobile-friendly site with social integration to simplify sharing, and developing a customer-service strategy to handle ratings and reviews.

Prediction 2: Incentivized Mobile Check-ins

The mobile check-in has deep ties to the social Web. But unless it becomes more automated, the mobile check-in will risk becoming endangered (not entirely extinct). As it stands, users’ love affair with the check-in has peaked, thanks, in large part, to the tedious physical activity of checking in to a location every time. Furthermore, check-in platforms have saturated the marketplace, leaving consumers baffled by which one to use for their next check-in (to that point, the less-known check-in platforms will be forced to integrate with the major ones in order to survive).

But even if automation is successful, users’ opinions of check-ins continue to wane, citing a lack of available deals. The obvious response is that check-ins must be further incentivized, but the platforms must find ways to attract advertisers willing to offer exclusive deals for mobile check-ins, which helps monetize mobile traffic by gauging its impact on in-store traffic (i.e., offer redemptions).

Prediction 3: Mobilized Daily Deals

Like the check-in, daily deals have experienced an overabundance of platforms in the marketplace. Moving forward, only those that adapt their platforms for mobile will survive. In 2012, more will do so, as well as begin offering deeper levels of customization and local targeting to make deals more relevant.

That’s critical because mobile is becoming a one-stop shop in the purchase cycle, from beginning to end. And daily deals, as well as the search for promo codes, are increasingly being used via smart devices. That is simultaneously mounting consumers’ growing expectation of mobile, meaning they expect to find deals that can be instantly redeemed without printing a coupon (no runaround). Businesses should respond by coupling their advertising efforts with promo codes and mobile-specific deals, as well as offer similar content on the platforms that can be accessed via mobile (e.g., social profiles and mobile-friendly landing pages).

Prediction 4: Advancements in Location and Behavioral Targeting

Piggybacking off the deeper sophistication coming to daily-deal targeting, ad providers, too, will be forced to up the ante with their targeting in 2012. With search advertising expected to ascend even more in 2012, advertisers will want to see evidence that their campaigns are reaching the desired audience to maximize exposure, investments and returns. Therefore, ad providers will place a growing emphasis on location, real time and personal relevance.

With that will come even greater performance, which will boost ad revenues and attract more advertisers. More national advertisers will certainly follow in the wake of the mobile-local explosion, but expect more local advertisers to follow suit as well. They’ll finally awaken to the reality that mobile has a tremendous impact on local sales, so they’ll allocate larger budgets to and begin testing mobile.

Prediction 5: Tablets Will Become Even Bigger

JP Morgan predicts that worldwide tablet shipments will reach 99 million in 2012. While smartphones are still the mobile medium of choice, advertisers should start thinking about testing their programs on tablets, as well as familiarizing themselves with the nuances of tablets versus smartphones. Like phones, tablets come with fragmentation across device types, operating systems, browsers and tech capabilities.