Mobile phones are getting smarter. In 2007 Apple, Google and Nokia all pushed hard into mobile software and services, as phones continued to evolve from talking and texting to downloading music, proper web browsing and email. All this has been promised since the 3G auctions in 2000, of course. But with today's phones packing more power than most people's first PCs, the giants of consumer technology have given up waiting for mobile operators to maximise their potential.
Vodafone's latest interims boasted its first £1bn in mobile data revenues. But that's mostly businessmen using BlackBerrys and laptop cards. So Vodafone is looking to a partnership with Nokia's new Ovi line of services - a door into music, Facebook or videogames - to stimulate mass-market mobile data usage. Nomura analyst Richard Windsor sees this as an admission of defeat of Vodafone's own-brand efforts. But the pairing increases prospects for both, albeit splitting profits as well as marketing and development costs.
It remains to be seen whether mobile-focused Aim companies, such as Bango, WIN and Probability, can seize a profitable slice of the growing mobile pie, or simply pin 2008's profit warnings on the big boys' competition.
