There are some wild predictions floating around about the predicted growth of Android-based mobile phone handset sales. Analysts in the industry are saying that there will be more than ten million of these handsets sold before the year is over. That’s a 900% increase! Is it possible?

It’s probably true that there will be a large increase in Android-based handset sales between this year and last year. That is because there are more companies offering these phones and the increased availability combined with the slow start of sales when the product launched could lead to a large percentage difference in sales.

But will there really be ten million handsets sold? We’re already almost halfway through the year so some major sales would have to take place in the last half of 2009 to make that happen. I’d be surprised if sales go that high but it’ll be interesting to see how close they get. There are definitely some interesting new handsets on the horizon.

Tags: android, google, mobile, phones, predictions, Technology

Japanese authors started writing entire books on their mobile phones more than five years ago. As cell phone handsets have become more advanced, this method of writing has become increasingly popular all around the world. A new cell-phone-written book called The Warded Man has gained attention in the media and is making best seller lists in Europe. Is this a trend that’s going to really take off?

It’s not necessarily easy to write a book on your cell phone but it’s getting easier by the day. With new options for keyboards on mobile phones and mobile web access for research, the mobile phone now serves as a small laptop. Budding authors can use their commute times to write rough drafts of their books on these devices.

It will be interesting to see if a culture springs up around this. It certainly has in Japan. It’s called keitai and it’s filled with books written on cell phones which all have a similar approach to the style of writing that is used in the novels. This approach is dialogue-driven and short-form so that it can be easily read in chunks on a mobile device. Whether or not that trend will truly go global has yet to be seen.

Learn about the short history of mobile phone novels.

Tags: cell phone culture, cell phone novels, mobile, mobile phone books, warded man, yoshi

Quick – think of the ways that you could use your phone to catch a criminal. Obviously if you witnessed a crime in action then you could call the police with your mobile phone to report the crime. And if you were a victim in a situation such as a kidnapping then you might text to get out of trouble and get your captor caught. But did you know that there are quite a few other ways that criminals are caught because of cell phones?

Take a look at these ten ways cell phones catch criminals. You might be surprised by a few of them. For example, did you know that cell phones emit a certain smell and that the same dogs that are used to find drugs can be used to find cell phones in certain illegal situations? There is some strange stuff going on out there in the world of fighting crime.

Now, get creative … I’d love to hear your thoughts on the most creative ways that we, as average citizens, could use cell phones to catch criminals in the act so that they would be caught. Share in the comments …

Tags: criminal, criminal justice, justice, law, legal, mobile, phones, Technology, Wireless

Marketing has been a big business for a long time. Mobile marketing has also been around for quite awhile. Basically, as soon as mobile phones started being a popular item, savvy marketers started wondering how they could use it as a way to deliver marketing messages to people. But in the last few years, as mobile technology has seen some serious advances, the interest in the mobile marketing business has really finally boomed.

Mobile marketing refers to basically any type of marketing or advertising that is done through the mobile phone. In the past, the primary method of marketing has been through sending text messages that advertise a product. However, with mobile Internet growing so quickly, mobile marketing is now much more focused on advertising and marketing through the mobile web.

It will be really interesting to watch the changes that take place with mobile marketing in the next few years. The mobile web is starting to look a lot more like the desktop-based web so there may be no difference at all in how we receive marketing messages between the two. Then again, phones and computers still do have their differences and smart marketers may harness those difference to change the face of mobile marketing in a way that the rest of us haven’t yet predicted.

What do you expect to see from mobile marketing in the next few years?

Tags: business, cell phones, kathryn vercillo, marketing, mobile, mobile marketing