With the smartphone revolution soon entering its sixth year, the Internet of Things is fast becoming a reality. As SAP global vice president of mobile strategy Bill Clark explained, technology vendors can no longer afford to ignore mobile when pursuing growth in the ever-crowded enterprise market: platform-agnostic applications are the next frontier for user experience, a top priority amidst the rapid consumerization of IT.

The fragmented reality of the mobile landscape makes it difficult for developers to keep up with the growing variety of connected devices, Clark concedes, a problem that will only worsen in 2014. But at the same time, the disappearance of cultural barriers to BYOD adoption will make it less painful for organizations to embrace the inevitable influx of employee-owned devices.

As more organizations open up to mobile, the tug of war between the CMO and CIO will gradually subside, with the former finally recognizing the central role of IT in driving revenue. And with increased internal collaboration come new opportunities:

“The War for Mobile Advertising will begin. Google, Facebook Twitter, and Apple have each set their sights on dominating the mobile ad market,” Next World Capital partner Ben Fu said. “Each company has their own unique market position and there is too much at stake to not be successful. The arms race has already begun and we will see all of these companies increase their pace of mobile acquisitions and investment in mobile products/offerings. Winners and losers will be decided by mobile execution in 2014 and beyond.”

The industry has good reason to be excited about mobile: smartphones and tablets will account for 30 percent of all digital spending in 2014, according to RadiumOne founding CEO Gurbaksh Chahal. To capture this market, brands will have to exploit location data and other new sources of information for personalized advertising.