What Were China's 600 Million Mobile Users 'Searching' For Last Year?

The top five search topic categories for 2007 were:
1. Dining/Entertainment
2. Stock/Financial
3. Ring tones/Pictures
4. Weather/Travel information
5. Leisure/Recreational Content

Compared with 2006, Dining/Entertainment is still the most popular search topic, but Stock/Financial searches have jumped from fourth place into second, with a traffic increase almost eight times greater. This is certainly not surprising given the mass interest in the financial markets after another year of over 100% growth.

The data showed some interesting trends, like that SMS and IM users had a greater tendency to do Local and Informational searches, whereas WAP and applet users tended to do more rich content searches. SMS and IM users were also more geographically diverse having a greater spread of users across a broader set of cities compared to WAP users, which were overrepresented in the Guangdong province. Since mInfo also operates the leading English language mobile search service in China (Guanxi(R)), it has some unique views on the behavior of English-speaking foreigners in China. Foreign
mobile search users were on average twice as active as Chinese users and tended to focus more on Local Search instead of other categories of services. They also tended to be on average older and had a larger proportion of professionals and executives than the Chinese user base.

New Multimedia Phone Released

Verizon Wireless and Palm have announced the launch of a new phone, which includes Internet access and other features.

Customers with the Treo 700wx Smartphone will be able to use high-speed Internet connections at speeds comparable to broadband, along with a wireless email facility. The phone uses the Windows Mobile 5.0 platform to get online, while the increased RAM will allow people to download more content and applications. It is also compatible with memory cards, which will appeal to those who regularly access music, video and photo images.

Tim Roper, vice-president of Palm, commented: "People love the Treo smartphone because they are driven by the need to stay in touch and manage a variety of communications and information – both business and personal." He added that the features on the new version would be a "core asset" for mobile professionals wanting to be productive while on the move.

The phone is also able to be used with Bluetooth headsets, while it also contains a 1.3 mega pixel camera and touch screen.

"No one should be surprised that there is a convergence of technology to the cell phone," states Mark Weibel, EVP of Marketing for Broadband National, the industries leading comparative shopping website. "These new phones come enabled with wireless networking technology, instant messaging, picture messaging, digital photo sharing tools, ringtones, gaming, navigation and the ability to store thousands of MP3 files."

For more information on multimedia phones and other digital products and services visit www.broadbandnational.com