According to a recent online survey conducted by ABI Research, nearly half (46%) of 500 users who use social networks have also visited a social network through a mobile phone. Of these, nearly 70% have visited MySpace and another 67% had visited Facebook. No other social networking site reached 15% adoption mobile adoption. continued »

While most consumers' initial reactions to marketing and advertising messages on their mobile phone can often be negative, a recent survey from ABI Research finds that their level of responsiveness can often be improved through incentives. In fact, approximately 37% of those who have received text message-based advertising have indicated they are more likely to respond to advertising in a ... continued »

Online social networking is huge and growing strongly, but what happens when all those virtual friends hit the road? Increasingly, they will be able to keep in touch via mobile versions of their favorite social networks, running on their cellular phones. ABI Research forecasts that in 2013, more than 140 million subscribers will share "anytime, anywhere" experiences this way, and ... continued »

The recent emergence of location-based mobile social networking services offered by providers such as GyPSii, Pelago and Loopt is revolutionizing social networking by allowing users to share real-life experiences via geo-tagged user-generated multimedia content, exchange recommendations about places, identify nearby friends and set up ad hoc face to face meetings.  continued »

In the second quarter of 2008, Tier One handset vendors enjoyed year-over-year unit shipment growth of between 15 and 22 percent. ABI Research estimates that 301 million units were shipped during the quarter and therefore reaffirms its forecast that the mobile device market will deliver 13% growth to take 2008 annual shipments to 1.3 billion units. continued »

As consumers increasingly surf the Web on their mobile phones, handset vendors are looking toward open-source browsers such as WebKit - the browser engine at the heart of the iPhone's Safari browser - as a way to bring it to them. However, despite growing interest in WebKit and Gecko (the engine for the Mozilla Corporation Firefox browser), commercial browser vendors ... continued »

Digital camera functionality, Bluetooth connectivity, and music/radio playback on mobile phones are the top three features that consumers consider essential for the next mobile phone they will purchase, according to a recent ABI Research survey of 1,402 current wireless subscribers in seven countries. The desire for camera phones with 2+ megapixels leads the pack with 47% of consumers listing this ... continued »

The most significant growth in wireless handset markets will occur at the top and bottom ends of the price and features range, as the smartphone and low-cost handset categories expand at the expense of the mid-range models commonly called "enhanced" phones. The enhanced phone sector is currently the largest in terms of shipments: 2007 saw 854 million units shipped. But ... continued »

Despite the fact that no LTE (Long Term Evolution) network is expected to be commercial before 2010, a new study from ABI Research forecasts that by 2013, there will be more than 32 million subscribers using LTE networks. Three of the largest mobile operators - China Mobile, Vodafone and Verizon Wireless - have announced plans to adopt LTE. continued »

Traditionally, security alarm systems used fixed telephone lines to pass information from the security alarm panel to a central monitoring facility. Today, however, that communication is increasingly being delegated to a digital cellular link. ABI Research forecasts that the 2007 number of just fewer than 2.5 million wireless security alarm connections will increase to more than 7.5 million in 2013. continued »