1. You couldn’t just ring/text whoever you’re meeting and ask them how far away they are, you just had to wait and hope you were in the right spot and had remembered the right time? 2. You actually picked up the phone and spoke to your friends, rather than having a conversation via SMS – or better still, you have a conversation in person! 3. There were no ads at the beginning of movies reminding you to turn off your phone, or better still the phone belonging to the person who forgot didn’t go off in the middle of the film! 4. People didn’t feel the need to interrupt a perfectly good constructive in person conversations by tending to a small ringing device in their pocket/bag 5. You took for granted the peace and quiet of leaving your home/office and not being at the mercy of a phone 6. Words were spelt correctly and in their entirety! 7. It was common courtesy to break up with someone, fire someone, or quit your job – in the very least via a phone call rather than via SMS 8. Most computers weren’t even hooked up to the internet! 9. Having a conversation on a cordless phone meant staying within a certain radius of the base 10. Kids rode BMX’s!

It is fair to say that mobile phones have changed our lives in a BIG way! Mobile phones are fast becoming the personal computing device of choice amongst all sectors of the community.

I had quite a difficult time coming up with the above list, trying to remember what our lives were really like before the era of the mobile phone. Fast-forwarding from that point however, the days when the primary use for mobile phones was for just making calls are rapidly disappearing into the distance behind us also!

The not-so-humble mobile phone is now your gateway to the rest of world, apart from the obvious communication purposes of your phone – you can do your banking, browse the internet, buy products and applications, Facebook, tweet, get directions, share pictures and videos, the list goes on and on…

With our reliance on using mobile phone technology – how do we need to integrate this into how we promote ourselves to our customers?

The real question I want to leave you with is this one…

What do people see when they try to access your website from their mobile phone?

Do you need to discuss you mobile web needs? Contact Get-online-now.biz today to discuss.

Oh, and I would love to hear any inclusions you might have for my above list!

Using mobiles for just calls and texting is a thing of the past, as a third of Australians now check emails on their handsets and more than 70 per cent access mobile entertainment and information services.

In spite of the global financial crisis, the use of mobile phone services has continued to grow in the past year as more Australians buy internet-enabled smartphones, the 2009 Australian Mobile Phone Lifestyle Index reveals.

Released today by the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association, the exhaustive survey of 3710 respondents found 36 per cent used email on their mobiles in the past 12 months, and, of those, almost half used email daily – a growth rate of 80 per cent over the previous year.

In last year’s survey, just 7 per cent of respondents accessed social networking sites from their handsets, but this figure has jumped this year to 32 per cent, with half of those accessing the sites daily.

General web browsing is also on the rise, with 21 per cent of respondents visiting websites on their mobile phones at least once a day.

Half access information services such as news, weather and movie times on their mobiles at least once a month.

Half of Australians used or bought entertainment services on their mobiles at least once a month, with games, ringtones and music downloads the three most popular categories.

In an interview, the report’s author, Dr Marisa Maio Mackay, said the results showed Australia had moved well beyond the tipping point in the consumer usage of mobile services.

Accessing the web, video, music and information on mobile phones was now well and truly mainstream.

The survey showed mobile phone service use was now “a commodity as opposed to a luxury for many Australians”.

Mackay, the director of research at m.Net, said much of the growth in mobile phone services was due to the launch of the iPhone, which “raised the standards in terms of usability across all handsets”.

Of the respondents, 9 per cent owned an iPhone.

Nokia was again the most popular brand, with 47 per cent owning a Nokia phone.

Sony Ericsson was second on 12 per cent, Samsung was third with 11 per cent and Motorola dropped from second place to sixth place on 5 per cent.

Aside from the growth in smartphones, another factor that has led to a jump in mobile internet use is the growth in adoption of faster 3G phones.

More than 63 per cent of respondents stated they had a 3/3.5G handset, while 16 per cent didn’t know.

Mackay noted that more Australians appeared to be comfortable both with making payments from their mobile phones and with mobile phone advertising, which she predicted would lead to a surge in investment in content services over the next year.”

- Asher Moses 29.09.09 smh.com.au

Find out how you can use mobile technology to promote your business – contact Get-online-now.biz to get access to Go Codes Mobile Marketing