US :JupiterResearch, a leading authority on the impact of the Internet and emerging consumer technologies on business, has found that a confluence of events, ranging from the introduction of the iPhone to the popularity of social networks among teens and young adults, is fundamentally altering consumer expectations of cellular services. As a result, social networks hold the potential to be a killer application for cell phones.

According to a new report "Mobile Social Networking: Assessing Social Strategies for Carriers and Handset Manufacturers," cell phones primarily play a disconnected role from social networks today. However, despite relatively low adoption of social networking activities on cell phones by the average cell phone user, active social networkers -- those accessing their networks multiple times each day -- are using their cell phones to interact with these sites, generating an enormous volume of traffic. "Consumption of media and information on social networks from cell phones has the potential to grow in the long term," explained Julie Ask ( above ), Vice President, Research Director and Lead Analyst of the report for JupiterResearch

"Today the low adoption levels are really due to the nature of the device itself. There are few examples of tightly integrated social networking experiences on cell phones and PC's." Handset manufacturers are beginning to make compelling plays in the mobile arena with social media by offering integrated mobile and PC-based experiences. Nokia, for example, has a "one-click" posting option for photos and videos from the camera application to their online media sharing site. According to David Schatsky, President of JupiterResearch, "Cell phones will likely rise in importance in the future. Large corporations have already banned access to personal email on sites such as Yahoo! from work computers. It may just be a matter of time before visits to social networks fall into the same category."