The Market: The mobile market statistics are staggering. Statistics from telecommunications analysis firm "The Mobile World" show that over 1,000 customers signed up to a mobile operator every minute in the first three months of 2007. The global birth rate was around 144 per minute - thus Mobile operators are giving birth to more subscribers than humans are having babies! In early 2007 there were 2.85 billion mobile phone users worldwide, and that figure is expected to increase to 3.35 billion by year end, yielding a penetration rate per global population of more than 50%. In 2007, 1 in six people in the world will buy a mobile phone and over 1 billion handsets will be shipped. Mobile penetration has now exceeded 100% in most European markets (Ireland alone currently stands at 112%).

The popularity of mobile phones has presented businesses and organizations with the ideal channel with which to get in contact with their customers and target audience. ABI Research forecasts that global spending on mobile marketing and advertising will see a 13-fold increase between 2006 and 2011 and worth up to $11.35bn by 2011. This is a huge emerging market, in which the standards have yet to set, and the possibilities and capabilities as yet unknown.