Facebook is now the most-visited social network on the mobile Web, according to Opera's latest 'State of the Mobile Web' report. Unique users of Facebook grew more than 600% during 2009, it says, helping the site surpass VKontakte, formerly the most popular social network among Opera Mini users. Twitter saw its usage increase more than any other social network, surging more than 2800% in just one year.
 
Opera's State of the Mobile Web Report, published monthly, is said to provide information on the top global trends affecting the mobile Web. In addition to the top global trends and country snapshots, this month, the report highlights Southeast Asia and examines social networking on the mobile web.
 
Global trends from the report include:
 
– In December 2009, more than 46.3 million people used Opera Mini, an 11% increase from November 2009 and more than 159% compared to December 2008.
 
– Those 46.3 million people viewed more than 20.7 billion pages in December 2009. Since November, page views have gone up 10.1%. Since December 2008, page views have increased 223%.
 
– Opera Mini users generated over 315 million megabytes (MB) of data for operators worldwide in December 2009. Since November, the data consumed went up by 10.5%. Data in Opera Mini is compressed up to 90%. If this data were uncompressed, Opera Mini users would have viewed over 2.9 petabytes (PB) of data in December. Since December 2008, data traffic is up 206%.
 
– The top 10 countries ranked by number of Opera Mini users are (in order): Russia, Indonesia, India, Ukraine, China, South Africa, United States, Vietnam, Nigeria, and United Kingdom. This month Ukraine overtook China, Vietnam continues its ascent (at the expense of the United Kingdom) and Nigeria is back on the list after a 3-month absence, pushing Poland out of the top 10 for the first time.
 
Social networking on the mobile web:
 
– Facebook is the top social-networking site, worldwide. Given the popularity of Opera in Russian-speaking countries, VKontakte used to be in the top position (based on unique users), but it was overtaken by Facebook in 2009.
 
– Twitter was the other big winner in terms of growth in 2009, with the number of unique unique users jumping more than 2800%.
 
– All of the listed social-networking sites, except for Friendster, showed significant user growth (via Opera Mini) in 2009.
 
"Four years ago this month we released Opera Mini to the world," said Jon von Tetzchner, Co-founder, Opera Software. "Fortunately the divide between the mobile Web and the Web accessed on PCs is now disappearing. People want to use the same sites, regardless of whether they use a phone or PC to access those sites. The success of Facebook and Twitter among Opera Mini users shows that consumer habits do not change even though their devices do."

Vodafone today announced that nearly 450,000 Vodafone customers have signed up to its music subscription services since it signed DRM-free deals with all four major labels in 2009.
Vodafone says that, in the month of December 2009, over 100,000 customers signed up to one of a range of music services offered across the eight largest Vodafone markets in Europe. Growth in customer subscription numbers is said to be being driven both by monthly 10-track MP3 bundles, as well as from ‘all you can eat' (AYCE) unlimited access subscription services.

MP3 files bought in bundles can be played on a wide range of computers and digital music players including iTunes and – most importantly for Vodafone's customers – on both mobile and PC. Customers will typically get 10 tracks per month for around €5.

AYCE services are offered both as a stand-alone product as well as bundled with data tariffs. When bundled with data, customers can access the entire catalogue of over 2 million tracks for as little as €3 a month.

Lee Epting, Director of Content at Vodafone Internet Services said "We are really excited by our customers' reaction to these great music offers. We expect to see continued growth in our music service subscriptions driven by the increase in smartphone use, with their worry-free data tariffs and great value add-ons such as music bundles. We will carry on working hard with our partners in the music industry to develop new and innovative music services for our customers. Vodafone is starting to prove the significance of its place in the music industry."

"Universal Music believes strongly in the future of music subscription services, and Vodafone is demonstrating leadership in this field.  This year will put such offers to the test as never before, as consumers recognise their value, diversity and convenience," said Francis Keeling, VP Digital at Universal Music Group International.

"Sony Music is pleased to be partnering with Vodafone, Europe's largest mobile carrier, to provide its customers with a compelling premium digital music solution for their handsets and the PC. Vodafone's users across the region are demonstrating that a growing number of consumers want innovative music offers that allow them to easily listen to their favourite songs by conveniently combining services and devices," said Michael Paull, Executive Vice President, Global Digital Business at Sony Music Entertainment.

Eric Daugan, Senior Vice President, Commercial Strategy, Warner Music Europe, said "These encouraging figures demonstrate the opportunities created when mobile companies and music labels are aligned in offering easy, instant access to content, in ways that cater for a variety of fan behaviour. We're delighted to be working with Vodafone to grow these services further, generating new connections between European audiences and Warner Music's remarkable roster of international and local talent."

"EMI and Vodafone have worked together for many years and over the last 12 months we have collaborated to bring a variety of music offerings designed to fulfil consumer demand across Europe.  We are very pleased with the results Vodafone have delivered," said Ian Whitfield, Vice President Digital Development for Europe at EMI.

Shipments of smartphones grew 15% year over year in 2009, marking one of the few positive trends in what was otherwise a difficult year for the mobile handset industry, according to a new study from IMS Research.

The growth in the smartphone segment stands in stark contrast to an estimated contraction of 7.9% in total handset shipments for the year. That disparity highlights an evolving trend in consumer preference, according to IMS Research analyst, Chris Schreck. "Last year validated the idea that the target market for smartphones is expanding rapidly. Increasingly, consumers who purchase a new handset are choosing a smartphone. The notion that smartphones are exclusively luxury purchases or enterprise tools is rapidly giving way to a perception of smartphones as a device with mass market appeal." This phenomenon proved especially true in North America and Western Europe, where smartphone shipment growth was strong despite grim expectations reported at the outset of 2009.

There are a number of market dynamics that contributed to the resilience of the smartphone segment. "The effort from handset OEMs to broaden the appeal of their smartphone portfolio and expanded offerings from mobile content suppliers resulted in an incredible level of innovation in 2009, particularly in the smartphone space," continued Schreck. "Between Android's increased market presence, faster processor speeds, more advanced displays, and increasingly sophisticated user interfaces, the gap between many of 2009's devices and those released in the previous year was noticeably vast. There were a number of devices in 2009 that proved difficult for consumers to pass up. And for their part, mobile network operators helped fuel smartphone growth with competitive subsidies and aggressively priced data plans."

Smartphone shipment growth is expected to accelerate in the future, with IMS Research projecting a CAGR of 24.5% between 2010 and 2015. Much of this growth is forecast to come at the expense of the feature phone segment, as the average selling price for entry level smartphones approaches the same levels as high end feature phones.

Aspiro, Northern European provider of mobile entertainment services, today confirmed that its new desktop and mobile streaming music service would now be available on Google's new Nexus One phone and other Android handsets.

The new service delivers live streaming of an extensive catalogue of music tracks via the online streaming service, the WiMP, beta launched in partnership last year with Norway's largest retail music chain, Platekompaniet.

Millions of tracks are already available on the player from some 160,000 albums and more than 120,000 artists from thousands of record labels including global giants such as Universal, Sony BMG, EMI and Warner as well as a host of local companies.

All the key features of the WiMP desktop service are available on the Android version – such as search, playlists, favourites and discovery. Tracks can also be cached for offline listening.

The WiMP service, also available as a white label service for operators, is designed as a subscription service and any music downloaded for offline listening can be accessed throughout the subscription period.

Announcing the development, Aspiro Music CEO Per Einar Dybvik said: "By adding the Android platform to our portfolio of devices we are ensuring that the benefits of the WiMP service can be enjoyed by desktop users on PC, Mac and Linux and by mobile users on iPhone and now Android.

"For our operator customers – this widespread availability is crucial to the success of streaming music services," he added.

Polystar OSIX, a supplier of Service Assurance and Network Performance Monitoring solutions based in Sweden, has announced that it has been selected by MTN Cyprus, one of the largest telecommunications providers in Cyprus, to supply network-wide integrated monitoring system, ensuring end-to-end quality of service across legacy and next generation UMTS technologies.

Polystar says its solutions will satisfy MTN's need for 'sophisticated' roaming Mmanagement and provide a comprehensive in-depth view of service quality. It will enable a real-time visibility of all roaming activities inside and outside MTN`s network and help MTN to identify weak spots in the network, allowing quick resolutions of roaming QoS issues, says Polystar.

Network and Service Assurance solutions will provide MTN with the end-to-end real-time network surveillance, comprehensive statistical and alarming tools, as well as troubleshooting capabilities. Jupiter's 4D visualisation techniques (Crystallizer module) grant users an instant access to performance information for voice, messaging and data services from customer and network perspectives. It will, in addition, enable MTN to apply a new and efficient method of prioritisation, not previously available in the telecommunications industry.

Commenting on the deal, the CTO of MTN Cyprus, Cosmas Adam, said: "Polystar was the clear choice because of the high performance of its Service Assurance product portfolio and the ability to cover multiple network technologies. Real-time end-to-end monitoring of our GSM and UMTS networks is an essential element in delivering best possible service quality to our customers. With the Polystar Roaming Management application, we are confident in our ability to track all subscribers` inbound and outbound roaming activities and manage roaming partners SLAs. All these will consequently lead to improved service quality and maximised revenue streams, generated by the high value roamers."

"Polystar is proud to count MTN Cyprus as one of its esteemed customers," said Detlef Ott, Business Region Director at Polystar. "Our innovative and customer tailored solutions will strengthen MTN`s solid position on the market and consolidate its standing as a pioneering provider offering continuous reliable mobile communication access to the customers."

Wi-Fi technology specialist Ruckus Wireless today announced that it will make its first appearance at the GSMA Mobile World Congress to outline its 3G/Wi-Fi internetworking reference architecture with mobile carriers and broadband operators.

According to Ruckus, renewed interest in Wi-Fi is exploding as mobile carriers look for more reliable and cost-effective methods to increase the coverage, capacity and reliability of their mobile infrastructures.  Offloading 3G traffic onto smarter Wi-Fi infrastructure is one near-term application driving this interest.

Wi-Fi solutions for 3G offload must provide subscribers a seamless and transparent experience while minimising the cost and complexity of internetworking infrastructure.  Given the fundamental differences between WLAN and 3GPP architectures, whether HSPA or LTE EPC, it is important to design and implement a network extension that is scalable and provides for no compromises in the user experience.

Ruckus says that its ability to bring unprecedented gains in coverage, capacity and reliability to carrier Wi-Fi applications has been well proven through its shipment of more than two million units to date.  The company's recently-announced entry into wireless broadband access is supporting a growing number of large-scale broadband connectivity projects.  Ruckus is now using its core Smart Wi-Fi radio access network technology to help mobile operators address growing capacity issues driven by smart phone data usage.

Through Ruckus' collaboration with leading operators in large commercial hotspot-network implementations and proof of concept trials of advanced 3G/Wi-Fi roaming functionality, the company says it has developed a new reference architecture that solves issues facing mobile operators in deploying hybrid 3G and Wi-Fi networks.

By moving intelligence to the edge of the access network where it can scale, limiting UE incursion to simple configuration push, and using standard 3GPP control interfaces, Ruckus has arrived at a flexible, lightweight and scalable internetworking design the company expects to be of significant interest to additional mobile operators attending the MWC event.

"Huge changes in user behaviour driven by the new generation of UE designs are clearly outstripping the capacity of mobile networks in several markets, and this problem will only get worse," said Steven Glapa, director of carrier business development for Ruckus Wireless.  "We have a number of operator engagements underway to tap the rapid pain relief offered by the low cost structure and simplicity of Wi-Fi, in combination with an internetworking approach designed for snap-fit into W-CDMA/HSPA and LTE networks."

Mobixell Networks, a provider of mobile multimedia and advertising solutions, announced today the acquisition of mobile internet company, 724 Solutions.  The merged company will create a global organisation with local sales and support capability in the US, UK, China, Switzerland, India, Israel, and other countries, and with a customer base of over 350 mobile operators worldwide.

According to Mobixell, the expanded company will focus on delivering media mobile internet and messaging solutions for mobile operators, enabling them to exploit the opportunities presented by the explosion of rich-media data traffic and the emergence of new exciting communication patterns driven by the ever increasing mobile media consumption on laptops, iPhone devices and other smartphones.

The rationale for the acquisition is said to have been driven by a joint vision of the two management teams, also shared by the combined company's customers and channel partners, as well as compelling synergies in the core competencies and technologies. 724 Solutions' Seamless Access and Seamless Messaging products provide scalable, reliable and extensible mobile internet, mobile broadband and messaging infrastructure that enable operators to efficiently and flexibly satisfy the explosion of mobile data traffic.  Mobixell possesses unrivalled expertise in adapting and manipulating rich- media content, particularly for mobile messaging and video, and in providing advanced Mobile Web 2.0 and Mobile Advertising solutions.  The objective in combining the two technologies is to deliver a next generation intelligent Mobile Internet Platform capable of taking a leadership position in the rapidly changing Mobile Internet market.  This solution will address the challenges for mobile operators in dealing efficiently with the explosion of data traffic, particularly video, and will allow them to further monetize data and messaging Web 2.0 based services.

Both Mobixell and 724 Solutions count hundreds of mobile operators amongst their customers, including many tier-1 mobile operators in Europe, North America and APAC, including Verizon Wireless, Vodafone, Orange, Swisscom, Turkcell, AIS and others.  The combined company intends to continue to partner with its strong OEM channels and system integrators such as IBM, Motorola, Alcatel-Lucent, NSN, Huawei, Ericsson, Comverse and many others.

According to Amir Aharoni, CEO of Mobixell, "The recent explosion in mobile data offers a challenge and an opportunity for mobile operators.  A challenge in terms of optimizing the usage level for bandwidth hungry applications, such as rich-media and video, but more importantly an opportunity to capitalize on the growing revenue potential of mobile data and compensate for the reduction in voice revenues.  The combination of expertise and technology between Mobixell and 724 Solutions uniquely positions us to tackle this issue and allow mobile operators to improve the return on their infrastructure investment in the burgeoning mobile internet traffic, expected by industry specialists to grow 66 fold by 2013".

John Sims, CEO of 724 Solutions commented, "The synergy and potential offered by the combined strengths and skills of 724 Solutions and Mobixell will allow us to offer our customers, the mobile operators, a real triple play of benefits: the ability to differentiate themselves from competitors, the ability to cut data handling infrastructure costs and the ability to further monetize their existing assets with solutions, such as the advertising and location-based services. Our existing customers and channel partners will continue to receive our full commitment – with a broader set of resources and value to meet their needs".

The combined company will be unveiling the joint vision and showcasing its extended offering at the Mobile World Congress.

Samsung has unveiled the results of a new survey into consumers' mobile software demands, providing insights into the opportunities available for the growing developer community across the world.

The survey results were found to be extremely encouraging for those developers currently creating apps for the mobile market, as this was identified as the greatest opportunity for new development. Almost half (42%) of current feature phone users surveyed would pay to download applications if they could – and 54% of those people would be prepared to pay up to €5 for each application they download, illustrating the scale of the potential revenues available for developers by extending application-downloadable smartphone markets.

The research comes ahead of the worldwide launch of Samsung's new bada platform, which is said to be set to open up millions of mainstream handsets worldwide to the new possibilities of applications. The consumer survey was based on responses from UK, France and Italy -three of Europe's biggest mobile markets where Samsung currently offers apps through its Samsung Application Store.

The research also highlighted the types of applications which are particularly sought after by those consumers who have no previous experience of downloading them – and therefore the people who present the biggest potential revenue opportunity for developers at the moment. The study shows that among users of mainstream handsets who have not downloaded an application before, travel and navigation applications were most in demand with 34% of people surveyed eager to use them, followed by photography (12%), work (11%) and shopping (9%).

"Our findings show the vast potential of the applications market and the huge untapped revenues, driven by high levels of consumer demand," said Dr Hosoo Lee, Executive Vice President and Head of the Media Solution Center at Samsung Electronics.

Dr Lee added, "Through the launch of bada, Samsung's open mobile platform, we aim to help developers to capitalise on this exciting market opportunity. The aim of the bada platform is to make smartphone features accessible to everyone, so that developers can reach larger audiences and the variety and creativity of apps can be enjoyed by many. We want consumers to have a fun and diverse mobile experience that really adds value to their lives, by providing them with high-quality applications and mobile services."

Further findings are said to illustrate where the market opportunity lies for different types of applications among current smartphone users, and indicate the areas where developers could reap the benefits and discover new revenues.

Overall, women were found to be highly attracted to certain types of applications, it says. Gaming applications are ranked more popular among women than men, with 70% of women surveyed saying they use them, as opposed to 57% of men. Women also value photography applications highly, with just under half saying that they use them to help in their everyday lives (49%). Nearly six out of ten women (57%) said that they use apps to enrich their family life, illustrating that demand for apps designed for parents has overtaken those for social networking (which received just 39% of responses).

Education is also an area with huge potential for growth within the application market. When asked what apps they would like to see developed, the highest number of respondents (18%) said they would like new education apps, as they feel that there isn't a suitable solution available for them at the present time. The figures also show that there are more opportunities for developers in the work and travel related apps arena. These were rated second and third by consumers disappointed that the right app is not available yet (17% and 13% respectively).

In addition, the findings raised the issue of the longevity of apps among smartphone users. 43% of app users said that once they have downloaded an app they quickly lose interest and cease using it, leaving almost half of apps redundant within a relatively short space of time. "This shows that the market is still in its infancy," said Dr Hosoo Lee. "There's a clear gap in the market for ‘killer' apps which can enrich people's mobile phone lives, and we believe that bada will be the platform to supply these apps."

A new report from Tariff Consultancy Ltd (TCL) is said to highlight the effects of the European Commission's roaming price cap from 2007 to 2010. Voice and SMS roaming rates in Europe have halved over this period, with very few prices applied below the cap. EU mobile roaming data rates are on average 5.4 euro, 5 times the 1 Euro per MB wholesale rate though individual operator data roaming rates vary from below the wholesale cap to more than 10 times the cap rate, says TCL.

"A main constraint on roaming usage is the lack of awareness by users," comments Margrit Sessions, MD of TCL; "In our survey over the 3-year period since 2007, it is striking how little unregulated roaming services pricing has declined," says Sessions. "The user can end up paying ten times more for communication when outside the EU."

TCL says it has identified some 90% of European mobile operators have chosen to position their EU voice roaming tariff close to the cap, which is acting as the de facto price standard.

A characteristic of the introduction of the EU roaming cap has been the change in roaming pricing to other regions outside of the European Union, it says. Operators have sought to offset the revenue limiting effects of the EU roaming cap by rebalancing roaming tariffs outside the EU. Some operators have altered the geographical zones which has resulted in higher prices for roamers in countries in particular countries such as Norway, Switzerland, the USA and Asia Pacific that were before in the EU zone.

Increasingly though, says TCL, mobile operators push a series of separate "opt in" roaming bundles for consumers that bypass the EU roaming cap which offer roaming discounts in return for a weekly or monthly fee to selected holiday destinations but can attract higher rates to EU countries than the EC rate cap.

The net effect of the rebalancing of mobile roaming tariffs outside of the EU has been to make roaming services to the US or other countries relatively expensive by comparison with the EU, says TCL.

For example:

– The price of a roaming voice call from the EU zone to the next geographical tariff zone has an average mark up of 200%

– The price of SMS roaming outside the EU zone to the next geographical zone has an average mark up of 160%.

Deutsche Telekom International Carrier Sales & Solutions (ICSS) says it is reinforcing its presence on the mobile market by launching "ICSS Mobile World."
 
Under the name "ICSS Mobile World", ICSS says it is offering a competitive set of mobile products combining basic and new aspiring services – said to be a unique offer with one contract at attractive pricing conditions – starting immediately. Within the comprehensive set of data, roaming, and messaging services, customers can choose to bundle four, three, or two services. 
 
Customers can select the following solutions:
 
IP eXchange service, said to be a premium-quality solution based on GSMA standards that promises reliable delivery of traffic while offering the flexibility to apply an appropriate level of quality.  The solution includes a completely managed connection with quality of service, high flexibility, and scalability, including CPE (customer premise equipment) for fixed network access up to 2.5 Gbps or IPsec access up to 30 Mbps. 
 
SMS eXchange, an SMS hubbing service that provides seamless, worldwide termination of high-quality SMS messages regardless of the network and destination country.  SMX offers a "one-stop shopping, one hub, one contract, one bill" solution with extended international connectivity and without additional investment to MNOs and MVNOs but also to SMS aggregators through a single interface. 

Signaling for International Roaming provides the customer with a high-quality, low-cost solution for all signaling for international roaming needs. 
 
MMX allows interconnection to a large number of partners and provides collection, mediation, rating, reporting, invoicing, and interworking negotiation.
 
In February 2009, ICSS launched SMS eXchange. In July 2009, ICSS then entered the market with the new IPX platform.  The IPX (IP eXchange) platform enables seamless convergence between different provider networks and thus interoperability among mobile network operators (MNOs), fixed network operators (FNOs), ISPs, and content and application providers. GRX traffic is supported on the ICSS IPX platform and GRX customers can be seamlessly migrated to IPX. The MMX service can be activated as existing service on the platform also.
  
"We are continuing to enhance our comprehensive portfolio of mobile products and offering our products and services in flexible, cost-effective bundles," Helmut Angst, Senior Vice President at Deutsche Telekom ICSS, says. "This lets our customers provide their own customers with more, new mobile services at attractive prices and thus improves competitiveness."