A new report from Juniper Research predicts the number of mobile Instant Messaging users will exceed 1.3 billion by 2016, which is three times as many as last year's total. The increase is expected to be driven by new services along with the continued growth of existing services.

However, SMS will remain as the primary means of text communication on mobile handsets, according to the report.

Map and location data provider NAVTEQ has published a survey about consumer reactions to mobile advertising within navigation.

Overall, 67% of consumers said they they were happy receiving promotional offers in exchange for free use of their favourite location-related content. Real-time traffic news was seen as the most valuable content for consumers, with 72% of respondents saying they'd use it on a weekly basis.

Nokia has announced a new smartphone based on the MeeGo platform. It's called the Nokia N9 and is due to hit the shops later this year, although availability and pricing are still unconfirmed.

The phone has no front-facing buttons and is designed to be entirely touch-controlled.

Mark Bridge writes:

The 'mobile doorbell'. What a clever idea. If someone rings your doorbell when you're out, it'll call your mobile phone and will let you talk via an intercom to the person at your front door. You can even protect yourself against burglars by pretending you're inside the house.

UK-based mobile web specialist 51Degrees.mobi has launched a free mobile analytics service for its customers and other interested users.

Web traffic from 10,000s of mobile-optimised sites can be viewed online and filtered by country, device manufacturer and month.