While the advertising industry had a tough time last year, the display ad portion of the ad industry really suffered,  According to JP Morgan’s 2010 Internet Industry Outlook released yesterday, online display ads are set to rebound, and the mobile advertising industry is on the verge of an even stronger return.

JP Morgan’s leading industry analyst Imran Kahn released the 328-page Interest Industry outlook which notes that total U.S. mobile advertising for 2009 is estimated at $2.6 billion, up 62 percent, with $2.3 billion of that from text messaging. Just 178 million was mobile search, and $140 million was display. Both of these were up 80 percent last year.  Turn to 2010, and mobile advertising is, according to Kahn, forecast to grow 45 percent to $3.8 billion ($3.2 billion SMS advertising, $253 million mobile display, and $31 million mobile search.)

That explains why Google and Apple are diving head first into mobile advertising and marketing, with Google’s AdMob $750M acquisition and today’s announcement that Apple will likely acquire Quattro Wireless for $250M. (It looks like Microsoft / Yahoo might want to scoop up Millennial Media or another mobile ad firm to compete.) The advertising industry as a whole may take a while to recover, but one of the largest growth areas is in mobile. Even though year after year industry types say “this is the year of mobile advertising,” looking at the current state of the industry, 2010 is starting out on a foot that might prove that sentiment right.