Opera ends 2008 with 17.8 million mobile users

Mobile browser company Opera has published a review of the mobile web for 2008. Its State of the Mobile Web report shows continuing growth, with 17.8 million people using Opera Mini at the end of the year. In the UK, the top 5 sites visited by Opera mobile users were google.com, facebook.com, yahoo.com, bbc.co.uk and orkut.com. The top UK social network was facebook.com with 536% growth in 2008. MySpace, incidentally, showed a 15% drop. [Press release]

New Mobile News podcast now available

In this week's Mobile News podcast we take our usual irreverent look at the week's industry news headlines. There's also a discussion about how the credit crunch is affecting the mobile industry and a preview of the INQ1 'Facebook phone'. As always, you can download or listen free at TheFonecast.com and on the Mobile News website... and you'll find us on iTunes and via RSS too.

The Mobile News podcast is presented and produced by Iain Graham, James Rosewell and Mark Bridge at TheFonecast.com

3 launches Facebook phone

As expected, 3 has announced the INQ1 - the 'Facebook phone' - today. It's the first phone from Hutchison-backed INQ and includes a number of social networking and communication services: Facebook, Skype, Windows Live Messenger, Last.fm and RSS feeds. There's a 3.2 megapixel camera, too. The INQ1 will be available free on a 'pay monthly' contract from £15 per month, which will include unlimited Facebook, Skype, Windows Live Messenger and web access, plus 75 minutes of calls to other networks, unlimited texts, unlimited email and unlimited free 3-to-3 calls (subject to 'fair use' terms). [Press release]

Facebook hits 15 million mobile users

Facebook says that it now has 15 million mobile users worldwide - that's three times more than they started with at the beginning of 2008. [Facebook blog]

Vodafone launches Facebook text service

Vodafone has launched a unique service that'll let UK mobile phone users send text messages from their Facebook profile to friends. The Vodafone Connect to Friends application lets Facebook users send texts (and, from later this month, picture messages as well) to mobile phones on any network. Vodafone is including 25 free text credits, with additional messages costing 10p for text and 30p for a picture. The service can be used by anyone regardless of their mobile network. [Press release]

Almost 40% of mobile web traffic is to social networks

Mobile browser company Opera has released a report about the state of the mobile web, basing its findings on statistics from more than 44 million Opera-equipped devices. It says almost 40% of mobile web traffic worldwide is to social networks, with some countries hitting 60%. Over three-quarters of all users are visiting standard web sites, with WAP and .mobi sites accounting for 23% of mobile web traffic. The UK's top ten web sites viewed from a mobile device were:

• www.facebook.com
• www.google.co.uk
• www.live.com
• www.bebo.com
• www.mocospace.com
• news.bbc.co.uk
• uk.yahoo.com
• www.itsmy.com
• www.faceparty.com
• www.ebay.co.uk

Facebook group for The Fonecast

There's now a Facebook group for The Fonecast, making it even easier for our listeners and contributors to keep up-to-date with mobile phone industry news.

Social Networking is going mobile (in case you hadn't noticed)

Research conducted by Nielsen Mobile shows that a growing number of mobile phone subscribers are taking online social networking to the streets. The UK leads Europe, with approximately 810,000 mobile subscribers - around 1.7% of the total number of customers - visiting social networking websites on their mobile phones in the first quarter of 2008. That's double the percentage of users in the rest of Europe and is also fractionally higher than in the USA. Facebook was the UK leader with 557,000 unique mobile users per month, followed by MySpace with 211,000 unique users. [Press release]

Vodafone's Head of Content discusses online plans

mocoNews.net has an interview with Vodafone's Head of Content about the company's online activity and its attempts to drive usage. Apparently "Facebook" is the company's main mobile internet search request. [Source: mocoNews.net]

Mobile media set free by doubleTwist

doubleTwist Corporation has announced the creation of doubleTwist desktop, a free downloadable program that helps users share, enjoy and synchronise their personal media between different devices or friends. They've also created a similar Facebook application called "Twist me!" - with compatibility between the Sony PlayStation Portable, Nokia Nseries devices, Sony Ericsson Walkman and Cybershot phones, LG Viewty and Windows Mobile smartphones. The company, co-founded by Jon Lech Johansen (who became known as DVD Jon when he 'cracked' DVD copy protection), says its mission is to enable consumers to enjoy their digital media on the widest possible range of devices. [PDF press release]

Top mobile searches of 2007

Internet service provider AOL has published this year's most common searches from its mobile portal. Iraq was the most popular mobile search term of the year, followed by MySpace, iPhone, Games, Mail, Chat. Music, Facebook, Ringtones and eBay. [Sources: RCRnews.com, Cellular-News.com]

Free Truphone calls via Facebook

Mobile VoIP service Truphone has created a Facebook application that lets other Facebook users call Facebook's Truphone customers via the web site. The service is free to callers and is currently free for the recipient as well. [Press release]