A recent announcement at the Mobile World Congress that Apple iPhones produced 50x more Google searches than any other handset got a ton of news coverage. Hello, can anyone really be that surprised? Apple’s killer app is really its browser – it was the first mobile handset to make web surfing humane. And more web searches means more data service consumption and more data consumption makes mobile operators smile … a lot. And Google’s search cash register just continues to ring and ring.

So, now the “buzz” is about how carriers must work hard to incent mobile search. Deals with carriers are being struck to bring search engines on deck and the industry buzz is all about how flat data plans will really jumpstart the mobile search business. I think that they may be missing the point.

There are three parts to igniting mobile search, in my opinion. First is having a halfway decent screen so that when people search, they aren’t trying to read stuff on a screen slightly larger than a postage stamp. Second, being able to access search outside the operator’s own web portal. Walled gardens are a thing of the past, just ask AOL, yet it is amazing to hear how many mobile operators still think that if they create “great content” people will be happy to live in their world. I’ve even heard some suggest that mobile carriers are actually investing in movie studios to produce special mobile content in order to keep people “sticky.” Yikes.

As important, no consumer cares about the browser; it’s just some nebulous thing that enables them to get to the internet. What people want is the ability to easily access applications – search being one of them – and easy access at that. As more and more mobile phones connect to the internet, the browser will simply be that which enables on the handset what people do now on their laptop. Applications will live in the cloud and not inside of some walled garden and decided by the carrier. People want the freedom to search and access what they want when they want it. And, the generation of mobile users known today as Generation Y would rather switch than fight that battle with a carrier that just doesn’t see it that way.

Third, and the sticky wicket…is the revenue model. Until that whole mess is sorted, my guess is that we’ll be talking about this for a while longer. We recently hosted a dinner in London to talk about the convergence of mobile and content. We had a great discussion, but at the end of the dinner the comment made by most everyone there was just how long the industry has been talking about the same issues without making any real progress. In order to make progress, someone in the mobile industry has to assume the role of the catalyst and reinvent the business model, recognizing that not everyone can have 100% of the profits but that all parties have to have an incentive to play together. Will an operator be that catalyst? Will Google? And, how about Nokia? At this point, it’s anyone’s guess. But he who emerges first, will not only crack the catalyst code but set the rules by which others will play.