The Feature on push media coming to mobile: "It sounds quite similar to the ill-fated "push" concept of the dot com days, but does it make more sense when mobile?"

I always felt that "push" on the fixed-line internet suffered from 2 problems: firstly, it was the wrong context. Sticking information up onto a desktop PC when it's idle limits you to business users - I'll bet most home users turn off their PC when it's not in use.

Putting it into screensaver is utterly pointless: it mostly appears when you're away from your desk, and you'll see it when you're back at your desk and wanting to do something that doesn't involve staring at a screensaver. Very helpful.

The other problem was timing: push was a kind of pre-WAP, it was one of the first Big New Things I remember coming along after web browsers that failed to initially deliver and led to a bit of cynicism. I remember a few years later new ideas that would come along (e.g. blogging) being compared to push-media, with the comparison intended as a slight.

BUT on mobile... I still think the idea of using spare network bandwidth to drip-feed content down to a phone is a strong one. It makes good use of 3Gs ability to prioritise traffic (so you only deliver content whilst the network isn't doing anything better) and thus makes better use of the network. It can be used to deliver types of content (e.g. video) which can't reliably be delivered on-demand with current networks. And - if there's a way of viewing this content which isn't a screensaver, then I reckon it has a good chance of working.