Text Messages Drive Mobile Data Growth

Medium demands savvy use by marketers

Mobile data service revenues in the US rose to $14.8 billion for the first half of 2008, according to the CTIA. That was up 40% over the first half of 2007, when data revenues reached $10.5 billion. Mobile data now accounts for one-fifth of all mobile revenues.

"More and more people are using wireless devices to access the Internet, take photos, get directions, watch videos, download music and send text messages," said Steve Largent, CEO of the CTIA, in a statement.

Vodafone Shows Image Search for Mobile Phones

The picture can be anything from a historical building to a CD cover, according to Vodafone. Otello then returns information relevant to the picture to the mobile phone, just like a normal search engine.

CeBIT 2008: Vodafone demos "Otello" visual search

At the CeBIT show in Germany, Vodafone is demonstrating a trial service called "Otello", which is a search engine that uses images, rather than words.

Rather than use a word as a search term, Otello users can send images via MMS from their mobiles and the search service which then returns the results to the user's phone as an "ordinary" search result.