Yahoo to provide UK's 3 with mobile ads

Pissing Google territory

Yahoo has struck a deal with mobile operator 3 UK to sell display ads and sponsored links on the company's Planet 3 portal site.
Yahoo becomes the shark for mobile internet advertising, indeed.

Where's Google ? Loosing its steam ? It appears that Yahoo OneSearch gets edge with operators.
I am not sure about consumer market ( if there is one ).

WAP browsing is still not for broad market, only iPhone is there to drive usage.
Operators mobile portals are lousy and killing subcribers with data rates.
Portals suck.

But for sure, ''mobile checkout'' is still in operators hands and no promising solution is on the market yet.

Well, nobody has dominant position and it is hard to measure those things at the moment.

USB stick modem for wireless internet access

Wifi hotspots are yesterday. 3G dongles are today. Affordable for consumers, not only businesses.

In essence, mobile lifestyle ( mobility ) is all about your mobile devices and connectivity . Right ?
Your phone, laptop or other gizmo makes true communication device when connected to a wider network.
Yet, it's not on cheap and it 's not much about convenience.

The business usually pay montly subs on 12 or 24 month contract and get PCMCIA card ( if they are not in mood to mess with WiFi , we have only few commercial hotspots in Croatia , but there's VIPNET's Mobile Connect modem only still too expensive ).

But 3G networks are reaching much more these days and perfect plug & play solution for connectivity seems to be USB dongle ready to access the Web without much intervention from the average user. No configuration at all.
I spotted this issue writing last year about Sony Ericsson's MD300.

Now, I've seen that Vodafone sells 3G dongle ( USB stick modem ) as well. The price of data and network bottlenecks are still important issues for widespread adoption.
Dean Bubley comment is right spot on:

'' Operators in the UK, Austria, South Africa, Portugal & others are definitely going after the consumer 3G dongle market.
Typical user is someone (student, recent immigrant etc) who doesn’t want a 12-24mo fixed-broadband contract at home, because either they share apartments, don’t have a current landline (which would cost £££ to get re-connected), move flat every 6 months or don’t yet have a local bank account / credit record.
Another segment is people who want a 2nd broadband line (maybe families, maybe young professionals).

While I do agree with most what Dean says, I think this type of connectivity is ideal for professionals on the move ( as a second broadband line ) and people without broadband connection in rural places.

The prices in Australia , for example, have dropped dramatically in the last year. AU$100 to AU$14.50 a month on a two year deal + free dongle.

When will those mobile data plans for laptops go hand in hand with mobile phone data plans ?