The button's text should preserve the original css class of the select and the selected option. This way you can customize it with i.e. images.

This change is along with this one: #3480 (commits)

For a demo: http://www.dotnetwise.com/tryAndError/jquery.mobile/select.filter/

Author: dotnetwise

js/jquery.mobile.forms.select.js

@@ -198,13 +198,16 @@ $.widget( "mobile.selectmenu", $.mobile.widget, {
 	},
 
 	setButtonText: function() {
-		var self = this, selected = this.selected();
+		var self = this, selected = this.selected(), cls = [self.select.attr("class")];;
 
-		this.button.find( ".ui-btn-text" ).text( function() {
+		this.button.find( ".ui-btn-text" ).html( function() {
+			
 			if ( !self.isMultiple ) {
-				return selected.text();
+				cls.push(selected.attr("class"));
+				return $("<span/>", {"class": cls.join(' ')}).text(selected.text());
 			}
 
+			//TODO: apply the span as above to preserve the css-class of the original select
 			return selected.length ? selected.map( function() {
 				return $( this ).text();
 			}).get().join( ", " ) : self.placeholder;