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I've finally recovered from my few days the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, which I'll have to admit were amongst the most gruelling I've ever had to endure. Less said about my hotel the better... Of all the people I met up with there, one worth mentioning is the creator and present maintainer of the WURFL, Luca Passani (with me in the photo on my left). I've known Luca virtually since 2000, throughout the ups and downs of WAP and the mobile Internet, and it was a pleasure to finally meet him in the flesh.

As loathed as I am, or should be, to make New Year's predictions, this year the temptation is a bit strong this time round. With Vodafone's liberalization of Internet data charges last year and the rush that many of the mobile operators have made into broadband it looks increasingly likely that the message has gotten through that the main thing stifling mobile Internet use is cost (a difficult message given that if you're likely to make decisions on such an issue, chances are you've not seen a mobile phone bill in years).

It's actually kind of exciting as the last time I felt something like this was about ten years ago as ecommerce was on the verge of going mainstream. Many were still unsure if it was here to stay, but it was rapidly becoming apparent that Pandora's box was well and truly open on that one.

So, my tentative prediction is that 2008 will be the year of the mobile Internet, or more correctly data services which would include not only mobile Internet, but mobile TV, VoIP and any application that can use TCP/IP services. As such expect to see an increase in surfing, the emergence of mobile social networking sites and applications, uptake in new mobile media and the ability to access everything we can access on the Web on our mobiles to even a limited extent.

All we need now is for mobile payments to become a reality and that's when the fun really begins...

For those interested, I've recently been asked to contribute on an ongoing basis to the Dev.Mobi site, which is part the dotMobi top-level domain initiative.

While I do so I will try to focus where possible at where mobile technology meets business reality as I genuinely believe this is an area that is still ill-considered largely by the industry itself.

This is because without understanding what mobile technologies have to both offer and their limitations, the danger is that we end up with Web-site-wannabies that will never be quite as rich as their desktop cousins while simultaneously ignoring those advantages that a mobile platform alone can offer. Enjoy.

I've been asked on a number of occasions to set this up (and I wanted to try writing the software from scratch) so I'm happy to announce that you can now use Gaddo.net to send text messages to supported networks.

Accounts come with full logging and error reporting facilities as well as API documentation and code examples. Additionally you can send simple messages via a simple Web based interface too. I hope to expand the service in the future, improving the number of networks and prices, but also expanding the API to allow additional functionality such as 8-bit messaging and incoming SMS.

Setting up an account is free - only sending the text messages costs - to do so please register by clicking here.

Needless to say, it's that time of the year again, so in the spirit of the season, I decided to put together a Nokia Series 60 Caravaggio theme. It's free to download, use and distribute. All I ask is that if you do distribute it you don't try to charge for it. Santa won't bring you presents if you do.

You can download it here or alternately you can point your phone's WAP browser at wap.gaddo.net and download it directly from the downloads section. Needless to say, it comes with no warranties or guarantees of any kind - caveat mendicaus, as it were...

Nonetheless, a very merry Christmas - or whatever is politically correct to call the holiday season - and a prosperous new year to you all.

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