To utilize Skype services you will need to have a data plan along with a compatible phone. When these are available you’ll be able to…

* Make and receive unlimited Skype-to-Skype voice calls to any Skype user around the globe on America’s most reliable wireless network.
* Call international phone numbers at competitive Skype Out calling rates.
* Send and receive instant messages to other Skype users.
* Remain always connected with the ability to see friends’ online presence.

One of those is the Pizza Hut app for the iPhone and iPod touch, which has now generated more than $1 million in sales according to MobileMarketer. The US-only iPhone app was first introduced three months ago.

Although Pizza Hut had a WAP enabled mobile site before launching the iPhone app, the iPhone app has far exceeded expectations.

BlackBerry Desktop Manager replaces earlier syncing software, PocketMac for BlackBerry, which paired an application installer with content-syncing tools similar to RIM’s new offering. The new Desktop Manager significantly offers backup and restore options, and limited media transfers.

The desktop manager syncs organizer data between your Mac and BlackBerry, like your contacts, calendar items, notes, and tasks–so long as your computer and the apps, like Entourage and Google Calendar, are set up for syncing.

The portal, which is accessed by simply entering a shortcode into the Internet browser on a cellphone, features a range of exciting content including downloadable wallpapers, games, animations, music, ringtones, competitions and news.

Content will also span the Disney Channel’s most popular series such as Hannah Montana, Wizards of Waverly Place and Phineas & Ferb. The portal can be accessed as follows: Type in disneysa.mobi into the WAP browser on a cellphone or text Disney to 33978 and a link to the portal will be sent to your phone.

The latest SR shows that Australians are using their mobile phones to go online for music (43 percent), games (33 percent) and sport (32 percent). They are also sharing photos (70 percent), ringtones (46 percent) and music (46 percent) via their mobile when they are online.

Another type of mobile messaging which is gaining popularity is MMS (Multimedia messaging service). The growth of MMS will mirror the growth of camera phones. MMS allow you to send picture messages and share it with others. As the network of MMS capable handsets grows, there is an increase in sending pictures between phones by MMS.

Mobile phone companies such as Motorola, LG, Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and many more have seen their profits sore since the introduction of camera mobile phones. Various networks like Orange, 3 Mobile, T Mobile, O2, Vodafone, Virgin etc offer free camera phone with special deals. The larger colour screen of camera phones makes the mobile phone an interesting and leisure device. These phones allow you to take an excellent photo and set it as the background image in your phone.

WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) adoption has partly been slowed historically by an unattractive, slow and text based user interface. WAP allows mobile phone users to have access to information services. The WAP enabled mobile phone can be connected to the internet instantly and can access any internet service immediately. Colour camera phones tend to support GPRS connectivity and also icon based graphical interface. This makes WAP a far more convincing user experience, and hence is increasing strong WAP adoption. All these features make a mobile phone more than just a device for handling calls.

Currently, Nokia, Motorola and Samsung are the market share leaders for the global cell phone market, and offer a wide selection of cell phones to meet every person’s needs. Cell phone costs range from less than $100 to more than $400, depending on the specifications. Your choice of cell phone should be dictated by the features you would like your cell phone to have. The first thing to consider is the cell phone size. As your cell phone will be carried with you most of the time, a slim and lightweight cell phone is the best choice. Cell phones also come with or without flip covers, and nowadays all cell phones allow text-messaging services.

Cell phones come with varying storage capacity for contacts – from as low as 50 to more than 200. If you want to use your cell phone to take pictures, then in-built camera phones of more than one mega pixel should be considered. Multimedia phones also offer short-duration video and voice recording features. These phones also have slots to attach to external devices for additional storage of your favorite pictures, music and videos. Another important thing to consider is the cell phone battery life. Battery life is the hours of talk time the battery supports. Many cell phones normally come with 250 minutes of talk time.

Other cell phone accessories include hands-free or speakerphone features. These would allow you to make or answer calls even while both hands are occupied, especially while driving. Cell phones with bluetooth or infrared technology allow the phone to connect wirelessly to your PC without having to invest in an expensive data cable. WAP enabled cell phones allow you to check emails even when you are on the move. It also enables you to use your phone as a modem. Medium-range phones come with in-built radio and MP3 features. Some phones also provide the option of changing cases to match your clothes to the occasion.

Cell phone ringtones have become popular nowadays and are a great way to add style to your phone. All phones come with preset ringtones but some phones come with options that allow you to compose ringtones. Many websites provide ringtone download services for free or at nominal charges.

That really was a load of WAP.

So, a few years on we can ask, like Frankie Goes to Hollywood, ‘WAP, what is it good for’?

More than you might think, given the current deafening silence from those same Mobile Operators.

The rise (and rise) of SMS is instructive. This has gone from nowhere to everywhere with practically no promotion from the networks. Type SMS into Google and you get 52 million hits! In China in 2003, 220 Billion SMS messages were sent. During 2003 in the UK alone, 30 Billion were sent, which equates to 500 for every man, woman and child in the entire country! What is going on here?

Well SMS is cheap, not cheap enough perhaps but, up until a couple of years ago, much cheaper than calling. So it was a viable alternative to making a mobile phone call, everyone could send and receive them, and it didn’t matter what handset you used or what network you were on (or even which country you were in).

Much the same is true of WAP. Most handsets sold this century in GSM markets are compatible. Costs, especially using GPRS, are very low, as long as the information is optimised for the handset. Actually, it costs less to read your email with GPRS than to send an SMS. How times change!

And people are using it, too. In the UK in December 2003, the number of WAP pages viewed was over 1 billion for the first time. The Mobile Data
Association (MDA) forecasts 13 billion for 2004 as a whole, up from 9.2 billion in 2003 (against an original MDA forecast for 2003 of 8 billion).

All this is in the face of complete indifference, if not outright hostility, from the networks. The problem for them is that, as mentioned, WAP is cheap. You can get all the mobile email you need via WAP to your handset for around one tenth of the cost of a RIM Blackberry data subscription. And please don’t ask how much the running costs are of a laptop mobile data card! A while ago, one of my colleagues used more data in a month than the cost of the mobile data card itself. Since then the networks have introduced more reasonable price bands, but he now gets all the email he needs on his cellular phone via WAP for one hundredth the amount spent during those expensive 30 days. And he doesn’t need to carry a laptop around with him, wait for it boot, wait again for it to download the mail, and balance it on one hand whilst holding his coffee with the other and his mobile phone in a third!

One of our customers for our mobile email software reads his mail whilst shaving in the morning. He can find out what has been happening overnight without having to get his computer out, dial in and log on. Another browses whilst tending to his cows, miles from mains electricity. Yet another admits he reads his mail in board meetings. So far luckily no-one has noticed his mobile sitting on the desk in front of him.

And there is for WAP, most likely, no new device to buy, either. Nothing additional to weigh down your pockets or to find room for in your briefcase. And it isn’t just good for email. You can also look up train timetables, get news & sports results, find medical information, find a restaurant and see what’s on the TV tonight.

And you can do all this, with the one electronic device that most people have with them all of the time – their mobile phone.

So – no new expensive devices are required, no high monthly charges are incurred and there is no waiting. No wonder the Mobile Operators aren’t impressed!

Mobile Phone Accessories being the easiest and cheapest way to upgrade your mobile, is hugely popular across all sections of mobile users. Most popular mobile phone accessories includes external memory cards and Bluetooth headsets. Popularity of the former is due to the fact that it allows a mobile phone user to carry all his files like media files and other office application on a memory card which are getting cheaper by the day. A comparatively cheap music phone fitted with a decent memory card is a quite tempting option against a costlier mp3 player.

A wireless Bluetooth headset comes in very hand to make and receive phone calls as well as listen to music when you’re driving. High capacity batteries that considerably increases the stand up time a mobile too are very popular among all users. Apart from that, charger adapter of different handsets are very necessary when the standard kit doesn’t include a charger that fits to a particular socket. The idea of charging your phone in the car with a Car kit adapter is gaining popularity.

Like the ever changing face of technology, the mobile phone accessories too are highly dynamic. Once popular external cameras for phone are now obsolete due to high definition integrated cameras but at the same time, futuristic Bluetooth GPS receiver, flexible keyboards and high definition multi-purpose speaker systems have came to the fore and now are hugely popular.

Mobile phone accessories, just like the mobile phone itself have covered a great distances in very less time and have been instrumental in determining the direction of the progress of the mobile phone.

WAP has received a bad rap, not only from the media, but also from users of WAP phones who choose not to access data on them. Less than 20 percent of Americans with phones that have WAP browsers actually ever access WAP sites, according to Jupiter Communications analyst Lucas Graves. Only 10 percent of Sprint PCS’ customers access the “wireless Web,” according to Jay Highly, vice president of business marketing for Sprint PCS.

It’s cumbersome to input data on a phone’s keypad and read from such a tiny screen, analysts say. Data is transmitted slowly at 9 kbs and the user pays airtime for the content.

However, don’t blame WAP as a technology for the lack of interest in the phones, analysts say. Perhaps WAP developers are to blame for over-hyping the technology and then receiving a black eye for it, but some think the real limitation of WAP is the lack of compelling content written in its wireless markup language (WML).

On the other hand, software developer Openwave has 14 million subscribers worldwide — which means there’s little interest when compared to the 70 million WAP-enabled handsets that have been sold.