3UK (which is expected to break even this year) has said that “calls to its “breaking news” 3G data service went up 19-fold in the hours after the terrorist bombs in London on 7 July”.
Bob Fuller, 3’s chief executive, who was formerly chief operating officer at rival Orange, said: “It shows that consumers tend to want breaking news [from their mobiles] rather than anything from [news] archives. For things they want to digest they will go elsewhere, but breaking news is different.”
That makes sense, and certainly explains the sudden influx of newspapers and wire services into the mobile space. News on mobiles have the online advantage of rapid and continuous updates combined with the advantage of mobility…if something big is happening people are going to want to check it often, and with mobiles they can do that at a time which suits them. Now they just need to minimize the disadvantages of a small screen and the cost…
Related stories:
–Handmark, AP Join For Wireless Content
–IHT Unveils Mobile Content Service
–Reuters Launches Mobile Video Service
Comments have been disabled for this post