The new millennium saw an expanding use of Web-enabled mobile handsets. This was especially true in Scandinavian and Asian countries. While banner adverts appeared on cell phones as early as the year 2000 on the Pacific Rim, it did not immediately catch on in other areas because major carriers in the US and Europe feared it would not be acceptable
to their customers. A recent study ( Katsukura et al., 2005 ) reported that in the early 2000s, for example, roughly 55% of people in Japan had signed up for Internet access on their cell phones compared with only 12% in the US. But by the mid-2000s, major cell phone networks in the US (Sprint Nextel and Verizon) and the UK (Vodafone Group) had introduced
advertising on their wireless information and entertainment services ( Yuan and Bryan-Low, 2006 ). This was encouraged by advances in phone technology. Early cell phones were designed solely for calling, not downloading. But cell phones now offer large colour screens and data connections making them much like small computers.