Here is my list of the punctuation marks in the development of the mobile web – wobile. The first ten years.
Some of the punctuation marks are flops, others are significant high points. Which ones are which?
1997 WAP starts
1999 DoCoMo launch IMODE in Japan -smileys and anime graphics (green screen)
Green screen WAP apps in Europe….taxi booking etc
KPN adopt DoCoMo’s IMODE in Holland
2000 astonishing growth of sms in Europe
2001 start of Colour screens on phones
2001 pay as you go starts to take of
Users prefer the billing on GPRS more than GSM
The launch of the O2 XDA. It is a phone/pda with a big screen and a web browser
Mobile phone companies start WAP portals, O2 active, Vodafone Live, Orange World
2002 dashboard applications manage and integrate corporate information server, pc and mobile environments
2003 Google launch WAP 2 Google mobile search
Camera phones appear. MMS gets launched with great fanfare
Premium rate SMS takes off
Ringtone companies thrive
2004 Nokia mobile phone have built in radios
2004 phones have built in mp3 players
Symbian launch vs Windows Mobile vs manufacturer specific OS systems from Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson
Launch of media players for Mobile phones from many vendors
Security cams feeding streams to Mobiles via Java apps
PSMS wallpaper download companies thrive (mostly humour, adult content)
2005 Jamba release Crazy frog
Ringtones get bad press because some companies abuse PSMS subscription billing
3G networks shorten the wait for WAP pages
2006 Adult content applications featuring high end Java apps with built live web streams and content billing
Blackberry email devices become very popular
2005 GMail mobile is launched
2006 Nokia bring out series 60 and N series phones. The Nokia PC suite makes phones and PC easy to link up.
2006 Mobile TV
2005 Sony Ericsson launch Walkman phones
2006 ManUtd launch their mobile phone site
And my guess for the next significant punctuation mark:
2007 new range of hybrid products get launched at CES and CeBIT from vendors such as Apple and Nokia. Really the beginning of mobile computing.