In Japan, mobile subscribers totalled 84 million in September 2004, with 50 million signed up for 2G data services, according to Impress R&D.

Twelve million used the voice-only plan and only about three million used a 3G or above service, SFN's World Digital Media Trends 2009 reported.

In March 2008, total mobile subscribers exceeded 96 million. People who signed up for a 2G data plan only accounted for a small amount, while voice-only users stayed flat.

Users signing up for 3G data non-flat rate services accounted for 25 million, while 3G data flat rate plans contributed 38 million and 3.5G data users made up 25 million. This made 3G or above users more than 70 percent of total mobile subscribers, according to the report, World Digital Media Trends 2009, released by SFN and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers.

German tech corporation Neofonie GmbH announced the launch of an iPad "rival," The Associated Press reported yesterday. The WePad might be better, the corporation claims, because of its larger screen as well as USB ports to connect exterior devices.

Neofonie mentioned that the machine might interest publishers because it would permit them to sell content without forcing a customer relationship (like Apple's iTunes or Amazon's Kindle do) so as to preserve the "simple content supplier" status, the AP wrote.

The WePad is extensible as well as open, since its Linux alternative is compatible with Flash and Java while its "meta-store" allows access to Android Marketplace and other application stores, paidContent reported today. Gadgetvenue.com disclosed that the device will operate on Google's Android operating system.

Neofonie will include its digital newspaper WeMagazine and a magazine platform. German magazine publisher Gruner & Jahr hopes to feature its titles on the WePad and conversations are underway between Neofonie and prominent German publishing group Axel Springer, paidContent added.

The Associated Press announced Friday it will launch a new unit to identify and develop new products for mobile devices and other multimedia platforms, Editor & Publisher reported.

The unit, called AP Gateway, will focus on softwares and products that will "enable newspapers as well as the news cooperative to display content on such devices as Apple Computer Inc.'s iPad," said Tom Curley, AP's president and CEO, at the annual meeting of the Colorado Press Association.

"AP Gateway will serve as the launching pad for new products and services from AP and other interested news publishers," Curley added. "It will allow the news industry to deliver the news directly to the consumer in a variety of exciting new ways," News and Tech reported.

The news organization also said it will begin charging iPad users for downloading AP content to their devices, but hasn't decided yet if it would charge for the software.

According to Jane Seagrave, AP chief revenue officer, "Consumers were more willing to pay for content on tablet devices than on the web," The Financial Times reported.

Facebook will launch Zero, its text-only version that may be offered by mobile phone carriers for free, according to TechCrunch. The low-bandwidth service that doesn't offer access to photos will be launched "in the coming weeks", Hexus today reported.

"We are discussing it... as an option to make Facebook on the mobile web available to everyone, anywhere and allow operators to encourage more mobile Internet usage," said a Facebook spokesperson, according to BBC News.

The social network announced at the 2010 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that more than 100 million users access its services from their mobile phones, according to Hexus.

Data from the GSM Association, which specialises in GSM mobile technology, revealed that UK users who use their mobile phone to access the Web spend almost half of their time on Facebook.