As mobile has passed the point of “next big thing,” one of the major questions about the space during Allen &Co.‘s Sun Valley tech conference was where are the acquisitions going to come from. It’s natural to expect TV and other traditional media companies to start eying mobile start-ups more intently as they scramble to fill that gap in their expertise, Bob Davis, a partner at Highland Capital Partners, told Reuters.

That’s not to say that Davis foresees a mad dash for mobile purchases anytime soon, as the credit markets and other recessionary pressures continue to bear down on company’s ability to finance major M&A activity. On the other hand, those same issues are also likely to keep prices down, which should inspire some bargain-hunters. Earlier this month, the Jordan, Edmiston Group said that M&A in the mobile space was up 46 percent. Looking ahead, JEGI sees mobile social nets and mobile content providers as key areas of investment.

—A bigger role for telecoms: The rise of the mobile internet will also spur carriers to buy up services. Case in point: AT&T’s 2008 purchase of Wi-Fi operator Wayport is seen as a way for manage the flow of content and expand their relationships with other companies. For example the Wayport deal expanded the carrier’s Wi-Fi network to nearly 20,000 hotspots in the U.S. by adding locations at some Marriott Vacation Club and Four Seasons hotels as well as McDonald’s restaurants.“In the wired Internet, the carrier was a dumb pipe,” Jefferies & Co.‘s Robert Jackman told Reuters. “In mobile Internet, carriers will play a bigger role. If you can’t control end-to-end through to the billing relationship, you can’t control the end-customer.”

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