Orange says mobile multimedia is more popular than ever

The latest Digital Media Index report from Orange (covering summer/autumn 2008) says that mobile data usage has almost doubled since the company's previous report, which covered November 2007 to January 2008. Sales of 3G mobile internet 'dongles' were up 2,139% since January, with 3G customer numbers rising 86%: 1.3 million people. Mobile search was up 30% and music downloads were up 10%. [Press release]

Orange reveals mobile data growth

UK mobile network Orange has just released its second Digital Media Index, comparing digital mobile usage with its first survey from May 2007. The Orange Digital Media Index shows that:

• Picture messaging has increased by 37%, with over 1 million photos uploaded from mobiles to online photo albums in August (although arguably this second statistic isn't "picture messaging"). So-called 'active' MMS users send an average 4.3 picture messages per month.
• Text messaging has increased by 25% to a billion text messages sent per month, which is an average 71 per customer
• Music downloads have increased by 15%
• Games downloads have increased by 3.4%

Overall, the company says mobile data services account for nearly 22% of network revenue in the last nine months.