Yesterday Millennial Media announced it is buying analytics provider TapMetrics. Millennial has itself offered analytics since its inception so I asked CEO Paul Palmieri about the rationale behind the acquisition. He told me late yesterday afternoon that TapMetrics offers "general business analytics" and that it would complement and round out the mobile campaign analytics that the company already offers.

Here's what Millennial will be able now to deliver to clients with the addition of TapMetrics:

• Real-Time, Highly Detailed Analytics
• User Interaction Information
• Feature and Version Adoption
• Device Types
• Crash Reporting
• Buzz Tracker & Reviews
• Competitive Ratings System

Palmieri and I went on to discuss the state of mobile advertising in general and a wide range of related issues. In particular we talked about advertiser demand for mobile, ad exchanges and "mediators" as well as mobile CPMs and whether then were stable or in still in decline.

On the third point he said that he believed mobile CPMs had stabilized after some price competition that saw them decline in Q2 and Q3 of last year. He also made the point however that there are too many consumer impressions chasing not enough advertiser spending and this is a contributing factor as well. In other words, consumers are adopting and using the mobile Internet at rates that are much greater than advertisers, many of whom are still stymied by confusion about what to do in mobile and its apparent fragmentation.

This "consumers lead, advertisers lag" pattern is also present to this day on the PC Internet where time spend with the medium is not commensurate with ad spending. However the patterns of consumer and advertiser adoption of the PC Internet are all accelerated (post iPhone debut) in mobile. Palmieri was ambivalent about mobile ad "mediators" or exchanges. He recognized that they brought some value to publishers and advertisers but raised a version of the premium-remnant argument that exists on the PC side. Palmieri said he wouldn't serve a high value branded campaign against impressions that weren't in his mind worthy of the advertiser. Still he acknowledged that exchanges do in some circumstances benefit publishers by providing more advertiser fill and benefit advertisers by providing some enhanced reach in an easy to buy fashion.

TapMetrics is based in San Francisco. Millennial Media, based in Baltimore, is arguably the largest of the existing independent mobile ad networks and thus, as I suggested to Palmieri yesterday, "on deck" -- in a manner of speaking.