Mobile internet use is growing while the number of people going online via a PC is slowing, analyst firm Nielsen Online has found. Some 7.3m people accessed the net via their mobile phones, during the second and third quarters of 2008. This is an increase of 25% compared to a growth of just 3% for the PC-based net audience – now more than 35m. It also found that the mobile net audience was younger and searched for different things.
LIRNEasia is beginning its planning for the next research cycle on mobile multiple play, or how the mobile handset is beginning to emerge as the access point for a plethora of services, of which synchronous voice communication will be only one. Sports news, which Dialog introduced in Sri Lanka around 1998-99, will be an important product. Yes, the Screen Is Tiny, but the Plans Are Big – New York Times ESPN is clearly onto something. More than nine million people visit its cellphone Web site each month, a following that surpasses the audience of most computer-based Web sites. Some sports fans apparently cannot wait to reach their homes or offices to check the score of a Patriots game or to see if their favorite pitcher has tossed a no-hitter, so tens of thousands of them receive an average of 22 ESPN text messages on their phones each week.