Just wanted to let you know that Fortumo will be attending CTIA Wireless in Las Vegas on 1-3 April. If you happen to be there as well, then we would love to set up a meeting or just have a cup of coffee somewhere. Please e-mail rain.rannu@fortumo.com to get in touch. See you in Vegas

We are very happy that Mobile Monday finally launches in Tallinn, Estonia. Fortumo is obviously there, as well as many of our customers. The opening event will be held at 18:00, Omega Hall, Olümpia Conference Centre.

Mobile Monday is a world known networking format for everyone in the mobile business. Meetings in Estonia are scheduled to be held monthly, alternating between Tallinn and Tartu. Tallinn events will cover general and marketing-related topics, with international speakers and a wide audience. Tartu events will focus on mobile development topics.

7th february
Vodafone & Myspace partner to develop mobile social networking

Vodafone inks an exclusive deal with MySpace allowing mobile users in the U.K. access to the social networking website on the move. The Vodafone deal with MySpace marks the first time that the Fox Interactive Media unit of News Corp. has made its MySpace.com portal available to European mobile users.

23rd february
Lanetro zed acquires Monstermob

The acquisition saga comes to an end when Monstermob shareholders vote in favor of LaNetro Zed’s proposal to take a 52 percent stake in the company. The completion of the deal ends weeks of speculation that China’s Linktone would take control of the company for $78 million, and marks the start of a major shake up of the D2C mobile content sector.

23rd April
Ntt doCoMo & napster launch unlimited mobile music service

This marks the first-ever deployment of the ground-breaking Napster Mobile service that seamlessly integrates mobile and PC, enabling users, for one low monthly fee, to access full-length songs and ringtones that can be delivered over-the-air (OTA) directly to their mobile handset for immediate listening and downloading. The service provides a blueprint for the clear convergence of Web and mobile music services, and paves the way for unique pricing and data models.

15th May
AOL enters into mobile advertising with third screen Media

The mobile advertising land grab continues with AOL snapping up mobile advertising company Third Screen Media for an undisclosed sum. The deal follows Microsoft’s acquisition of French advertising firm ScreenTonic and marks another milestone deal in a period that has seen a mad scramble for position in digital advertising.

1st June
Amp’d Mobile MVnO files Chapter 11

The dream of the content-oriented MVNO comes to an end as Amp’d Mobile files for bankruptcy protection and closes its doors a month later. The news comes just months after the high profile fall of Mobile ESPN, the Disney- owned MVNO that hoped to find a subscriber base among U.S. sports fans by delivering sports-oriented content
over the phone. Will ad-funded MVNO Blyk raise hope?

29th June
Apple launches iPhone & re-invents touch-screen technology

Steve Jobs takes the wraps off the long-awaited iPhone, a game-changing device with touch screen and a raft of features to encourage mobile browsing and content consumption. The iPhone buzz reaches Europe in the Fall, sparking a Christmas buying frenzy.

29th August
Nokia announces Ovi & a move towards internet services

Nokia reinvents itself as a mobile services company, announcing Ovi as an umbrella service for its music, games, mapping and Internet offerings. The launch ends the speculation about Nokia’s intentions in the content sector and marks a significant turning point in the handset maker’s strategy.

1st september 2007
UK. mobile payment goes live with Payforit launch

Major U.K. mobile operators jointly launch Payforit, a new payment service for mobile websites based on Vodafone m-payments. Use is limited to transactions under GBP10 and the user-experience is similar to the Internet. Could this be the initiative that jumpstarts real m-commerce development?

1st november
Nokia buys navigation mapping company navteq

Nokia pays a whopping $8.1 billion for Navteq, a satellite navigation mapping and software company. The technology is
folded into the existing Nokia Maps solution, which is spearheaded in the market by the GPS-enabled N95 Nseries device. Will this be the catalyst for mainstream location-based services (LBS) adoption?

29th november
Eu supports dVB-h mobile tV standard

The European Union formally and finally supports DVB-H as its “official” mobile TV format. The decision to support one standard is seen as an effort to promote consensus and stop market fragmentation. Signs are strong that 2008 will mark the starting point for commercial mobile TV.

by: Netsize Guide 2008 - Top 10 facts

At the moment there are more than 3.3 billion mobile phone users worldwide it makes 50% of total population, compared to 20% of internet’s. That is why experts are predicting great changes in mobile social networks’ field. According to Pyramid Research’s “Social Networking Goes Mobile” report the number of consumers worldwide using their mobile phones to access social networks will more than triple from 2010 to 2012.

As we can see from the graph below 1/3 of UK’s mobile phone users are using the device to read their e-mails. We can roughly say that most of them are business users. On the other hand 1/4 are using phones for social networking already now. These are mostly young people and it is predicted that the number will increase as well.

The demand for these services, isn’t necessarily universal, it is strong among some specific geographic and demographic groups. For example in US AT&T continues to offer a paid version of MySpace Mobile, while MySpace itself offers a free mobile version of the site and AT&T has plenty of customers for that service. Nearly 500 social network-using respondents said for the study that mobile phones were their main means of daily communication. That would appear to make social networking by mobile phone a sure hit for US teens. Teen interest in Facebooking or MySpacing by phone will likely grow through , e-marketer has given their predictions on the graph below.