BBC: Mobile Net Growing in Popularity
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Britons are downloading three times as many web pages on their cell phones this year as last, some 28.5 million pages a day, according to the Mobile Data Association (MDA). Meanwhile, their use of SMS (simple message system) text messaging has remained flat in that same period.
The increase in mobile web activity is good news for the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), which was much hyped in the late '90s but has taken longer to gain traction than many analysts had expected. Among the most popular web-mobile activities are news, sports, celebrity gossip, cinema and music listings and locating the nearest pubs, along with the rage of downloading polyphonic ringtones. The music industry is pushing ringtones as a way to promote new songs, and Brits are estimated to be on track to spend £70 million (US$ 117 million) on ringtones this year, compared to £40m in 2002 according to the MDA.
