Here is my list of the punctuation marks in the development of the mobile web – wobile. The first ten years.

Some of the punctuation marks are flops, others are significant high points. Which ones are which?

1997 WAP starts

1999 DoCoMo launch IMODE in Japan -smileys and anime graphics (green screen)

Green screen WAP apps in Europe….taxi booking etc

KPN adopt DoCoMo’s IMODE in Holland

2000 astonishing growth of sms in Europe

2001 start of Colour screens on phones

2001 pay as you go starts to take of

Users prefer the billing on GPRS more than GSM

The launch of the O2 XDA. It is a phone/pda with a big screen and a web browser

Mobile phone companies start WAP portals, O2 active, Vodafone Live, Orange World

2002 dashboard applications manage and integrate corporate information server, pc and mobile environments

2003 Google launch WAP 2 Google mobile search

Camera phones appear. MMS gets launched with great fanfare

Premium rate SMS takes off

Ringtone companies thrive

2004 Nokia mobile phone have built in radios

2004 phones have built in mp3 players

Symbian launch vs Windows Mobile vs manufacturer specific OS systems from Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson

Launch of media players for Mobile phones from many vendors

Security cams feeding streams to Mobiles via Java apps

PSMS wallpaper download companies thrive (mostly humour, adult content)

2005 Jamba release Crazy frog

Ringtones get bad press because some companies abuse PSMS subscription billing

3G networks shorten the wait for WAP pages

2006 Adult content applications featuring high end Java apps with built live web streams and content billing

Blackberry email devices become very popular

2005 GMail mobile is launched

2006 Nokia bring out series 60 and N series phones. The Nokia PC suite makes phones and PC easy to link up.

2006 Mobile TV

2005 Sony Ericsson launch Walkman phones

2006 ManUtd launch their mobile phone site

And my guess for the next significant punctuation mark:

2007 new range of hybrid products get launched at CES and CeBIT from vendors such as Apple and Nokia. Really the beginning of mobile computing.

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Many people find the Web useful for online learning but there are lots of things you can do besides learning online, such as finding new games of Sudoku online to play or getting some math help online for your kids.