Only a year ago, if you ask anyone ‘where he accesses news from’, the probable answers would be TV, Radio or Internet. Besides the majority of those accessing news and information would report that they did so only a few times in the month; so over the small period of just one year, we have witnessed mobile Internet access become a part of the daily media diet of a hugely growing number of people.

The number of people using mobile devices to access the Internet more than doubled from January 2008 to January 2009, according to comScore, a provider of Internet tracking. Internet users have been using smartphones for personal use and to conduct business, similar to the way they would use a laptop or home computer. But the convenience of carrying mobile is way better than laptop leave alone desktops. Nowadays business is done at the speed of the light and nobody is ready to wait for years to receive feedback. Mobile internet is an efficient mode to increase the speed of communication.

Researchers predicts that there will be more growth next year as mobile content offerings continue to expand and as more consumers learn to use the mobile Internet. Furthermore, devices are becoming more sophisticated and less expensive, and data plans are being packaged and priced more attractively to allure new customer into their fold.

Last January, of the 63.2 million people who used their mobile device to access information, 22.4 million, or 35 percent of mobile-device users, did it on a daily basis; more than double last year's 10.8 million people.

At the beginning of this year, 22.3 million people accessed news and other content using a downloaded application. One of the most popular downloaded applications was maps, with an 8.2 million users.

In January, device users not only used mobile phones to search for directions, but 14.1 million also conducted searches for content and 32.4 million used SMS to access news and information.

Let us measure where we stand on this whole picture. Are we ready to leverage the benefits ?

Fashion and functionality are two mutually exclusive words. And so females- who are-as per popular perception- more inclined to fashion- than functionalities. But the iPhone has done the trick for the gender. It has provided the best functionalities without compromising the awesome look.

In act iPhones are better suited to females for females are better at multi-tasking unlike men. Along with unlimited access to some very useful ready to use information are all the more handy for females to give justice to their chores.

In the month of November 2008, Australian mobile phone companies confirmed more women than men were buying Apple's fancy iPhone. The reasons are there for everyone to see. Apple has invested efforts by keeping in mind females and it has been paying it off so far.

In Australia, Vodafone's general manager for Victoria and Tasmania, Paul Guerra, said the company hadn't researched why women had turned out to be much more receptive to the iPhone than men, despite early assumptions it would appeal more to men. It's a great-looking device the female customer is comfortable using and displaying.

Apple announced fourth-quarter (ending September 27) profits of $1.14 billion helped along substantially by global sales of more than 6,892,000 iPhones.

"Apple just reported one of the best quarters in its history, with a spectacular performance by the iPhone," Apple CEO Steve Jobs said. Even time tested RIM phones were left behind in terms of sales during the period. "We sold more phones than RIM." (RIM manufactures the popular Blackberry phones.) Says jubilant Mr. Jobs.

A reliable industry source speculates that up to 200,000 Australians have opted for iPhones to other smartphones since the 3G version hit the market in July ‘08. CBD-based financial consultant Fiona Brown, 25, bought her iPhone 3G the day it arrived in Melbourne.

"It's hot, it's a cute little phone - I've converted so many girls into getting them," Ms Brown said.

"It saves so much space in your handbag." She adds.

Another woman Amanda Miller, 34, who herself is a Malvern small business operator and mother of three, said an iPhone was like a computer in her handbag.

"That's very useful for a busy mum juggling kids, work and running the house.

''It's much lighter than carrying around a laptop."

And before concluding I cannot forget Jess Pryles, 28, owner of Sugadeaux Cupcakes at South Yarra, who wanted an iPhone so much so that she bought one from New York in April.

The fun in browsing the profiles of your past and current friends is fun, isn’t it? But as I redundantly said if it’s on your mobile then the fun would be quadrupled. It not only saves us time to wait for our desktops to start and connect but it makes things happen ‘on the go’. With the iPhone in your hands, it’s just a click away.

Facebook is letting users of its flourishing social-networking community play together on the road by using popular iPhone and iPod Touch mobile devices.

For the first time, even our iPhone apps can now have friends!!!
Having tasted the substantial success, they want to come up with more such novelties to keep consumer in happy state of mind. After all consumers are the ultimate dictators in the market.

The novel idea is really futuristic. Mini software programs tailored to mesh with the Facebook operating platform let social-networking users play games with each other online, share restaurant reviews while on the move, and locate friends. This way they’ll have more experienced review of the hotel, motel or club to go for. This will definitely help users increase their friend base in an unknown territory. The local business will be more consumer friendly than ever for it is the consumers who would share their reviews on their iPhones or iPods.

Facebook members can avail the benefit of the community-oriented applications through iPhones as they would if they were connecting through a laptop or a home computer.

Facebook launched Connect last year as a way to break down the walls between the social networking service and other websites and services on the Internet.
“Agency Wars" lets people pretend to be members of agencies such as the CIA or MI6 and work as mobile teams on missions while becoming "the most deadly spy around."

"Who has the Biggest Brain?" has been played by no less than 15 million people worldwide since it launched on Facebook in 2007. The App Store now has a version that lets Facebook users train their brains while on the go.

Playfish chief executive Kristian Segerstrale believes that iPhone and iPod touch represent the next generation of entertainment platforms.

Other Facebook-oriented applications doing well at the App Store are Urbanspoon restaurant review-sharing service and Flixster film recommendation website, along with games "iBowl," "Live Poker," and "Tap Tap Revenge 2."

It was one gelid morning of Minnesota. The year was 2006. I was sipping tea while going through the newspapers and magazines spread on my tea table. A salient business that was knocking the door of world economy was mobile industry. Without an iota of doubt my conviction only corroborated as I was exploring more and more about it.

Today in March 2009 the sheer enormity of the industry proves my point. GDP is an accepted norm the world we live in. The world total GDP - the total Gross Domestic Product for the planet in 2008- is about 55 Trillion US dollars. The fact that mobile industry is a trillion dollar economy would suffice to endorse my point. Today there are over 60 countries where mobile phone subscriptions exceed the total human population. People cutting across country, caste, creed, and color, all have embraced this wonderful medium of communication with open arms. Increasingly more and more fruitful research and development is carried out by various industry players to the benefit of mankind. The exponential growth has generated employment on a large scale worldwide to cater to the physiological as well as psychological needs of homo sapiens.

It is one of the very few industries that have registered sustaining growth. People centric approach has paid the industry its dues and dividends. Let’s have a glance at few front running industries.

• Books business, is part of a bigger industry sector, called Print, which also includes newspapers, magazines etc. Without doubt it’s big. But is it a Trillion dollar industry despite providing employment to millions? The answer is an emphatic No. Only about half that.
• Make your educated guess about Television. Of course it’s mighty. Actually, combined with radio, the broadcasting industry is still nowhere near a Trillion, only about half that.
• How about Advertising? Surely that is a cyclopean industry, but also advertising is worth roughly half a Trillion dollars.
• Well then the IT industry? Nope, it’s another half Trillion there.
• Let’s take a look at the Drink industry: - Drinks, milk, beverages. Let’s make this big by adding Pepsi, Coca Cola, Red Bull, Tropicana & Welch orange juice. Heineken, Budweiser, all the wines from France to Australia. Hard liquor, the vodka martini, shaken not stirred. A good Speyside single malt whisky like a Glenlivet or Cragganmore or Tomintoul. In short the whole beverage industry. Ok, it’s big. Yet, it’s not worth a Trillion dollars in size.
• My better half harbors quite a rosy picture of Air Travel industry. Surely that is a mammoth industry, all those Jumbo Jets and air travel, and those 380 Air-buses. Nope. Still it’s not a trillion dollar economy. Air travel is also in the half Trillion dollar range.
• Then I thought of Car industry. Yes, the total worldwide automobile industry is worth about over a Trillion dollars in annual sales. Cumulatively all of Toyota, GM, Ford, Nissan, Volkswagen, Mazda, Hyundai and Fiat and Renault, all cars sold globally every year. Now we have a Trillion dollar industry.
• The global Food industry. Yes, that’s a Trillion there, food.
• Shockingly-whether someone likes it or not- the global Weapon business is worth a trillion US dollar.

We have a new one. For the first time in 2008, Mobile Telecoms became a Trillion Dollar Baby. She is the youngest in all the above industries and also the fastest growing, more promising than any other industry.

Keep tuned, in next articles we will see how this baby grew from its origin. What were the impediments and how did it overcame those?

Overall mobile industry sales in 2006 in South Korea are assumed at KRW 21.1 trillion. It will grow at an average rate of 2.28%, so as to increase to KRW 23.6 trillion in 2010. Mobile data sales will increase by 9.69% a year from KRW 3.7 trillion in 2006 to KRW 5.9 trillion in 2010

To further the case of South Korean teenagers’ intransigence towards cell phones and its ancillary services, following two incidents caught the attention of mass media across the globe and made headlines in local dailies of S. Korea. Here is an interesting and small case-study of a business that grows through all the travails and tribulations. How? Let’s see….Following is the story in a leading newspaper.

“South Korean mobile phone companies said that they were offering new calling plans after a 16-year-old boy in Iksan killed himself because of a huge phone bill.

He committed suicide on Feb. 15, 2006 after receiving a bill for about 3.7 million won, or $3,800, in data charges for playing games on his mobile phone, the police in Iksan said. Immediately all the mobile operators swung into action and did what they thought to be more humane and generous for teenagers. In response, mobile phone operators said they would create billing plans allowing for unlimited data use at a reasonable cost. SK Telecom, South Korea's leading mobile phone company, said it would offer an unlimited data plan for 30,000 won a month. KTF said it would cap the data costs at 26,000 won.”

Hardly the ink had dried another shocker came. Let’s get across that.

“Amidst the report towards the fag end of the year 2006 that South Korean parents who despair at having to pay skyrocketing mobile phone bills for their chatty children now prohibits have the government on their side. Starting in 2007, new telecom regulations will include a contract that basically teens from spending more than US$40 a month on the phone.”

The total number of mobile subscribers in South Korea in 2006- was a staggering 40,197,115, which is not a minuscule amount by any standards. Mobile churn rate in South Korea was 2.41% in 2006, slightly increased from 2004, and will record 2.20% by 2010. Despite of some stringent decisions taken by the government, I stuck my neck out on the unimaginable growth of this most vibrant industry. Why not? Since I had sense of hunch backed up by facts and figures of mobile becoming preferred mode of communication over other. Lets not forget to travel into time of 2007. I will show you how my surmises proved right.