01_239537-ffirs.qxp 6/3/08 6:56 PM Page i Mobile Internet FOR DUMmIES‰ Michael J. O’Farrell John R. Levine Jostein Algroy James Pearce Daniel Appelquist 02_239537-ftoc.qxp 6/3/08 6:57 PM Page viii 01_239537-ffirs.qxp 6/3/08 6:56 PM Page i Mobile Internet FOR DUMmIES‰ Michael J. O’Farrell John R. Levine Jostein Algroy James Pearce Daniel Appelquist 01_239537-ffirs.qxp 6/3/08 6:56 PM Page ii Mobile Internet For Dummies® Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 111 River Street Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2008 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permit- ted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. 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Library of Congress Control Number: 2008929977 ISBN: 978-0-470-23953-7 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 01_239537-ffirs.qxp 6/3/08 6:56 PM Page iii About the Authors Michael J. O’Farrell started his mobile Internet career in the early 1990s, by pioneering the development of text messaging, mobile-phone-based applications, and the mobile Web to reach mass market audiences globally. In addition to consulting companies on how to capitalize on the power of the mobile Internet, he is vice chairman of ooober and chair of the dotMobi Advisory Group. Michael wrote this book to help his friends, family, wife, and two children in Toronto better understand his addiction to all things mobile. John R. Levine wrote his first program in 1967 on an IBM 1130 (a computer somewhat less powerful than your typical modern digital wristwatch, only more difficult to use). Although John used to spend most of his time writing software, now he mostly writes books (including Internet For Dummies, pub- lished by Wiley Publishing, Inc.) because it’s more fun and he can do so at home in the tiny village of Trumansburg, New York, where in his spare time he was the mayor for several years. Jostein Algroy is senior advisor for the government of Ontario, Canada. He has been active in the mobile space for more than 15 years as an inter- national consumer market strategist and published journalist. Jostein has taught international business, strategy, new product development, and design at Copenhagen Business School. He also works with photography, having achieved awards and recognition for his art, and looks forward to the day when mobile phones are equipped with high-quality, 8-megapixel cameras. James Pearce is the chief technology officer at dotMobi. He has the mobile Web in his veins, having worked previously at Argogroup and AnywhereYouGo and as the founder of the “old school” mobile blog WAPtastic. Variously a management consultant, a teacher, an orienteer, and an Oxford University physicist by training, James has declared every year since 1997 to be the Year of the Mobile Web. For the sake of his wife and two children, with whom he lives happily in Dublin, we hope he’s finally right. Daniel Appelquist is an American expatriate and a dot-com refugee living in London, England, where he works as a technology strategist for Vodafone, a company he represents in the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), where he chairs the Mobile Web Best Practices working group. He is an evangelist for mobile Web topics, a published author, a frequent speaker, and a co-founder of Mobile Monday London and the Mobile 2.0 conferences. You can usually catch Dan mobile blogging while hanging out with his wife and two kids. 01_239537-ffirs.qxp 6/3/08 6:56 PM Page iv About the Contributor Michael Becker is executive vice president of business development at iLoop Mobile. Additionally, he is a board member of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) and the dotMobi Advisory Group and is a co-publisher of the award-winning MMA Journal of Mobile Marketing. He is also finalizing his doctorate, focusing on the mobile channel. When he comes up for air, Michael enjoys quiet times at home in San Jose with his wife and two kids — with his smartphone on Silent mode. 01_239537-ffirs.qxp 6/3/08 6:56 PM Page v Authors’ Acknowledgments Making this book was possible because of the great support we got from our wives and kids at home — they have been with us all the way. Michael thanks Christine, Grace, and Matthew. Jostein thanks Eva. Dan thanks Allison, Alex, and Emily. And, James thanks Jayne, Jex, and Evie. The late nights and early mornings needed in order to crunch another paragraph or ten e-mails made all the difference, and we really appreciate the extra time and space you gave us to get the writing done. As you can tell from our list of featured co-authors, writing a book about the mobile Internet isn’t as easy as it might seem. To provide you with the most comprehensive snapshot of all the mobile Internet has to offer (and to make it easy for you to understand and enjoy), we got some additional help along the way. We want to thank Trey Harvin from dotMobi, for saying Yes when we needed it most; Laura Marriott from the Mobile Marketing Association, for sending the “Good to go” text message for the book’s glossary contribution; Russell Buckley from AdMob, for his words of mobile advertising wisdom; Kathie Legg for her contributions on mobile in politics; and especially Michael Becker at iLoop Mobile, for the midnight text message saying “How could I help?” Michael helped us out in a big way with his contribution to a couple of chapters — so much so that we thought we should give him an extra bit of credit — because credit is definitely due — as a key contributing (behind the scenes) co-author. Finally, our thanks to a few people who helped us get the ball rolling and kept us moving forward to get this book finished and in your hands. Our special thanks to Steve, Rebecca, Becky, Jim, Bill, and Neil. And, we thank all the staff at Wiley and Waterside Productions (and John Levine) for making little miracles come together for the rookies on the co-author team. Visit our Web site at http://mifd.mobi — from your computer or mobile phone — for updates and more information about topics in this book. 01_239537-ffirs.qxp 6/3/08 6:56 PM Page vi Publisher’s Acknowledgments We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/. Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following: Acquisitions and Editorial Composition Services Project Editor: Rebecca Senninger Project Coordinator: Katherine Key Executive Editor: Steven Hayes Layout and Graphics: Reuben W.