A New Year's Eve For All To See

We tend to splurge in large amounts on New Year's Eve, so why should our messaging activity be any different? According to messaging provider Mobeon, based in Stockholm, Sweden, New Year's Eve 2005 will see the largest number of video mail messages ever sent.

With the growing installed base of 3G phones out there, and the proclivity of teens and young adults to employ the multimedia capabilities of these handsets, Mobeon believes this younger market will use the celebration to launch the largest video mail barrage we've ever seen.

That makes sense. Last December 31st broke all records for SMS messages sent and received (111 million messages) so we already know it's a popular time to click out a mobile missive. Mobeon predicts we'll see upwards of five million video clips making the rounds to ring in the New Year.If that's true, it's a good thing there are time zones so that carriers don't get overwhelmed at midnight. Let's just hope that the evil-doers don't decide that this is a great opportunity to break some records of their own with a massive SMS attack. Incidently, threat watchers on the e-mail side are still looking at January 5 as the date for the next Sober worm attack.

We all know how popular mobile messaging is in the youth market. But it's gaining a good head of steam in the enterprise market, as well. Dave Grannan, general manager of mobile e-mail at Nokia's Mobility Solutions division, speaking earlier this week at Interop in New York, said he predicts the number of mobile e-mail users to reach 100 million in four years, just in the enterprise market.

And finally, as time winds down and you are still looking for the perfect gifts for the techies on your list, now would be a good time to check out The Ultimate Holiday Gift Guide with latest and greatest gadgets and gizmos. You'll find everything from the practical to the off-the-wall and just plain cool.

And if you are looking to surprise a certain Pipeline editor (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) you can scratch the USB Glowing Aquarium and go straight to the 7.1 megapixel digital cameras.