Mobile access to the internet has trebled in the last 12 months according to the latest figures from the Mobile Data Association (MDA).
It is calculated that 884 million page impressions were made across the four major GSM network operators in August, a daily average to 28.5 million, compared to just 9 million per day in August 2002.
Commenting on the figures, Mike Short, chairman of the MDA, said: “We have seen significant growth of WAP in the last 12 months and an ever-increasing number of compelling services on offer. An area of enormous growth is the ringtone and downloads market, the demand for which has rocketed due to increasing take-up of improved handsets with polyphonic sound.”
He continued: “It is likely that a large number of more sophisticated phones will be bought as Christmas presents this year, equipped with colour screens capable of providing an improved WAP experience”.
August’s figure takes the cumulative total for 2003 to almost 5.5 billion and the MDA forecasts that WAP page impressions will reach 8 billion by the end of the year.
The data also shows that the most popular WAP URL’s now include celebrity gossip and film & gig sites, as well as the more established news and sports sites.
Almost 1.7 billion person to person text messages were sent across the UK’s four GSM networks during August, according to the latest figures from the MDA (see Text Messaging Craze Hots Up During August).
