Today

Britain's mobile phone junkies are set to blow a massive three-quarters of a billion pounds (£740m) on phone downloads this year alone, some eighteen times the £40m spent in 2002, according to research by Mintel.

What is more, volume sales are expected to increase by an even greater amount from just 30 million downloads in 2002 to an estimated 760 million this year - a massive 25 fold increase. Volume growth has exceeded value growth as the real cost of a download has fallen from £1.30 in 2002 to just under £1.00 in 2005.

This latest research also shows that ringtones account for the largest share of downloads, with a third (33%) of volume sales, followed by games, which account for a quarter (26%) of the market. The remainder is made up of wallpapers/screensaves (13%), gambling (9%), music (8%) and others (11%), which includes news updates from football clubs, the Stock Exchange and other special groups.

By the end of this year all download types, except wallpapers/screensaves, are expected to have at least doubled their volume sales. However it is gambling that is set to grow by the most impressive amount, with an estimated 367% increase anticipated for this 12 month period alone.

This year, the value of the mobile phone handset market is forecast to break through the £1 billion barrier, with an impressive 20 million handsets expected to be sold in 2005 alone. Today, exclusive consumer research also shows that as many as four in five (82%) adults (and 61% of youths) own a mobile phone.

The mobile download market is going through a period of self-regulation, to ensure that subscribers to services are able to see precisely what they are signing up to and can easily stop the subscription. However, the exclusive consumer research shows that people still feel there is a lack of transparency in the market. Indeed, two in five (42%) of those who have downloaded "worry about the hidden costs associated with downloading" and one five (19%) parents say that they "worry that their children will end up racking up high charges".

The download market may be getting through to young people, but it still has to prove that its products are relevant to older generations as over 40% of those aged 35 years old and above believing these downloads are a waste of money. What is more, while a fifth (19%) of all adults are unsure about how to go about downloading files, this rises to around a third of those aged 55 and over.