Released on: October 1, 2008, 4:20 am

Press Release Author: Brooklyn Bhandari

Industry: Telecommunications

Press Release Summary: Robert Jaques reports on vnunet.com nine million US mobile
phone subscribers have used their handsets to pay for goods or services via premium
SMS, according to data released today.

Press Release Body: Nine million mobile users have made a purchase with their handset.

Robert Jaques reports on vnunet.com nine million US mobile phone subscribers have
used their handsets to pay for goods or services via premium SMS, according to data
released today.

Nielsen Mobile's monthly Mobile Insights survey of more than 30,000 US wireless
subscribers found that half of all data users expect to participate in mobile
commerce in the future.

Men were more likely than women to use their phone for commerce: 4.5 per cent of men
(4.9 million) and three per cent of women (4.3 million) indicated that they have
made a purchase using their phone.

Adults aged 25 to 34 are the most likely to have made a purchase using their phone:
5.4 per cent of adults in this category (three million) have made a purchase,
compared to 3.6 per cent of all mobile subscribers.

The research indicates that mobile websites are one popular way that consumers make
purchases over the mobile phone.

Of the 40 million active US users of the mobile web in April 2008, five million
accessed mobile shopping and auction websites, up 73 per cent from April 2007 when
just 2.9 million mobile users did so.

Auction site www.eBay.com is the most popular shopping or auction destination on the
mobile web with 3.4 million unique visitors in April.

Purchasing items via text message is another growing form of mobile commerce. Some
services, such as www.txtnation.com's mENABLE platform allow consumers to send text
messages to a phone number in order to be charged for goods or services directly on
their mobile phone bills.

Already, 6.5 million US mobile consumers say they have used text messaging to
purchase an item.

"For many of the millions of consumers who are already shopping online or over
landline phones, mobile commerce is an obvious and useful extension," said Nic
Covey, director of insights at Nielsen Mobile.

"As more mobile commerce services become available, and consumers develop a greater
trust for phone-based transactions, we expect commerce to be an increasingly
important part of the mobile experience next year and beyond."
25/06/2008 - By Brooklyn Bhandari

Web Site: http://www.txtnation.com

Contact Details: txtNation
Poseidon House
Waterfront Business Park
Plymouth
PL4 OSJ