2012 Olympics 'to rely on mobile media'

The London Olympics in 2012 will see a greater focus on mobile media than in previous events, it has been revealed.

Speaking at the Mobile Entertainment Market 09 conference, Alex Balfour of the Olympics organising committee said that a new 3G information service used only by officials at the Athens and Beijing Olympics will be trialled for public use at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.

"Assuming that's successful, it may be an interesting deployment for us; we're in very early discussion around that," Mr Balfour commented, according to paidContent:UK.

He added that there will be a focus on offering results, maps, transactions and wayfinding to attendees of the London event via mobile phones.

According to a Juniper Research forecast released last year, there will be more than 1.7 billion users of the mobile web by 2013 worldwide.

This growth will be driven by demand for mobile Web 2.0 apps and increased 2.5G and 3G penetration, the company said.

This news story was brought to you by Bluhalo, a leading UK digital agency.