WO2008015456A1

WO2008015456A1 - Method of pushing information to a mobile device

Info

Publication number: WO2008015456A1
Application number: PCT/GB2007/002962
Authority: WO
Inventors: Jurgen Josef Wittkopp; Graham Bell; Michael David Emmens; Stephen Chi Yee Chan; Philip David White
Original assignee: Aditon Limited
Priority date: 2006-08-03
Filing date: 2007-08-03
Publication date: 2008-02-07
Also published as: GB0615441D0

Abstract

A method of pushing information to a mobile device having a connection to a wireless telephone network, the method comprising the steps of identifying at least one item of information to be provided to a user of the mobile device, and opening a data transfer session using the wireless telephone network to send the at least one item of information specifically to the mobile device, and wherein the information is adapted to be received by a application executing within the mobile device and to be presented to a user via a user interface.

Description

METHOD OF PUSHING INFORMATION TO A MOBILE DEVICE

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a method and system for pushing information to a mobile device, and for displaying that information.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Mobile telecommunication devices such as mobile telephones have become commonplace, with a large proportion of the population routinely carrying one. When the telephone receives an incoming call, it generally uses the screen to display information about the caller, such as the caller's telephone number or, where the caller's number is already known to the telephone, a message indicating the caller's identity. The screen is also used to interface with other functions provided by the telephone, for example to play games where they are provided on the telephone, to look up information in an organiser, to take pictures, or to browse the internet using, for example, the wireless application protocol provided on so-called 2G (GSM) telephones. CDMA (3G) telephones offer further enhanced features, such as presentation of video clips in addition to web browsing functionality.

It is also common for the display mode to change fairly promptly after a user has stopped interfacing with the telephone, for example when the user has not used the keypad within a relatively short period of time, and the display often initially shows a network operator's "idle" screen and then after more prolonged period of use often merely shows a clock or a user selected screen saver. It is also common for the backlight illuminating the screen to be depowered after a relatively short period of time so as to conserve battery life. Nevertheless, even when the backlight is depowered it is still generally possible to observe the clock displayed on the mobile phone's LCD display. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of pushing information to a mobile device having a connection to a wireless telephone network, the method comprising the steps of: a) identifying at least one item of information to be provided to a user of a mobile device; and b) opening a data transfer session using the wireless telephone network to send the at least one item of information specifically to the mobile device; and wherein the information is adapted to be received by an application executing within the mobile device and to be presented to a user via a user interface.

It is thus possible to make use of the display provided on a mobile device, such as a mobile telephone, to present information to a user either during what would otherwise be considered idle periods of the mobile device or when the device is in use. As used herein, the term "idle periods" is intended to mean those periods of time where a telephone or other device not operating in accordance with the present invention would tend to display either the network operator's idle screen or merely a clock. Furthermore, as used herein, the term "item of information" includes messages of general interest, advertisements, electronically redeemable coupons, games, audio or video content and so on, but excludes telephone voice conversations.

It is thus possible for parties such as commercial organisations to promote their goods or services on the display of a telephone or other mobile device.

The item of information, or data content, can be delivered via a data channel, such as the GPRS service for GSM mobile telephony thereby enabling reasonably fast data transfer from a content server to the mobile device. The data packet transfer service may be used on CDMA systems.

The data content may be individualised for a user based on a user profile. Data items delivered to the mobile device from the content server may be periodically downloaded at the time when the mobile device and/or telecommunications network is expected to have spare capacity or has been interrogated to determine that it has spare capacity. Thus the downloaded data content may, for example, be downloaded during the night when data traffic is significantly reduced and cached for display the following day as and when a user starts using their mobile telephone. In certain embodiments, both the content and the time at which that content is expected to be displayed can be personalised. For example, the application executing on the mobile telephone or other device can examine the user's typical usage of their telephone or other device over a period of time. Thus if a user tends to start playing games on a telephone at a certain time, for example because they are travelling to work on a bus, and a repeated pattern of game playing is observed at a certain time during weekdays, then this information can be returned to a user profile server and the user's profile modified such that advertisers may, if they so choose, have their advertisements displayed on the telephone at a time preceding that time when the user usually starts playing games such that there will be a reasonable expectation that the advertisement will already be on display on the mobile telephone when the user retrieves their telephone in order to start their habitual game playing. Therefore the user will have a significantly increased probability of viewing the advertisement at an expected time. Furthermore, if the nature of the use, e.g. which games are played, is recorded and returned to the user database then this information may further be used to target advertisements and offers, for example about games, to the user.

In certain embodiments of the invention, the application running on the mobile terminal may also record other data about a user's typical day. Thus the application may monitor a user's position as a function of time using for example the cell identity available to the mobile phone while it is logged on to the mobile phone network or, alternatively, GPS information (or equivalent positioning system information) where such a system is integrated in the mobile telephone. This information may be periodically returned to the content server such that the server builds up a model the travel patterns of a user. This means that advertisers can predict with some certainty that at a given time in the day a user will be at a certain place, because they habitually make such a journey. Advertising content delivered to the user may be geographically tailored to favour commercial concerns having a presence at the place where the user is expected to travel to.

Merchants and advertisers may, for example, be charged for the advertisements they display on a number of well understood charging schemes. Thus, where an advertiser defines their target customer base, one charging scheme may be based on a pay per targeted customer basis. Alternatively advertisers may pay on a per second display basis and this may be combined with a pay per targeted customer scheme. Advertisers may also be charged on the amount of data that they wish transported or the complexity of the links embedded within their advert. Thus, for example, an advertiser may send an advert which includes embedded links which may initiate a browser session to their own web site, a voice call to the advertiser's business, a short message service session, or initiate a request to the merchant to call the user.

Other charging schemes may also be invoked.

Local authorities and/or government may also use the system in order to seek feedback from the people. Thus, if a question was to be voted on in a referendum, then the data presented to a user might include pre-filled "yes" and a pre-filled "no" box with each one of those initiating a respective short message service session to a data centre such that votes could be instantaneously collected and counted.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will further be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 schematically illustrates interaction between a content server constituting an embodiment of the present invention and a mobile device, also constituting an embodiment of the present invention, via a mobile telephone and telecommunications network; Figure 2 schematically illustrates the components within the servers shown in Figure 1 ;

Figure 3 schematically illustrates a user profile stored within the user profile database illustrated in Figure 1 ;

Figure 4 is a flow diagram showing an exemplary embodiment of a targeted message creation process;

Figure 5 is a flow diagram illustrating a display process implemented within a mobile device;

Figure 6 schematically illustrates a flow diagram showing a process used to determine when the items of downloaded information should be presented for display on the display screen of a mobile device; and

Figure 7 schematically illustrates system components within a mobile telephone.

PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

Figure 1 schematically illustrates an information providing system constituting an embodiment of the present invention for pushing information to a mobile device, generally designated 1. A content server 2 is provided in communication with a user profile database 4 such that users matching a merchant or advertiser's target audience profile can be identified and an advertisement sent to a specific user's mobile telephone 1 over the mobile telephone network, generally designated 6. The content server 2 can receive advertisements from merchants or advertisers, of which only two, designated merchant 1 and merchant 2, are shown, via a communications interface such as the internet 8. The content server 2 acts as a communications node such that any requests for information resulting from user activation of an embedded link within an advert can be directly monitored by the content server and/or passed on to an internet proxy server 10 which may monitor internet style transactions between the mobile device 1 and the advertisers/merchants, merchant 1 or merchant 2, so as to check for bookings or sales or other qualifying events occurring in this interaction which may be used to trigger a payment from the relevant merchant or advertiser, merchant 1 or merchant 2, to the content server operator. The proxy server 10 may monitor the transactions such that any qualifying event is notified to a billing server 12 either directly or, as shown via the content server so as to raise a charge against an account of a relevant advertiser.

Although the content server 2, user profile database 4, internet proxy server 10 and billing server 12 have been identified as physically separate servers they may all be implemented within a single computing platform and/or any one server may itself be implemented in a distributed platform such that, for example, the content server 2 may be implemented as various content servers either grouped together in a single geographical location or geographically diverse, at the choice of the service operator.

The or each server 2, 4, 10, 12 may comprise an essentially standard hardware configuration, as illustrated in Figure 2, such that one or more processor cores 14 interface with semiconductor memory 15 and hard disc memory 16 via a data bus. The server also has input and output devices 17, such as an administrator interface such that the server can be administered and also network interfaces 18 to enable it to be connected to the internet and to the mobile telephone operator's network.

In use, advertisers or content providers may present one or more adverts or other items of content for presentation to users. The advertisers/content providers may seek to define the target times for which they wish their content to be displayed, and they may also seek to define their target audience, in terms of audience demographics and interests. Therefore a commercial concern wishing to advertise cruises may, for example, target users in the over 50 age range whereas the owner of a nightclub might choose to target users in, say, the 18 to 25 years age range. As particular models of mobile telephone are often targeted at particular market segments, audiences can be targeted by the model of telephone they own. Similarly, users' network operators can be used to identify a desired target audience. Audiences can also be targeted by gender and user defined preferences, or indeed dislikes. Therefore a user who fits the gender and age profile for being targeted with an offer to subscribe to a motor sport magazine may be excluded from the target list if they have previously indicated that they have no interest in motor sport whatsoever.

Once an advertiser has submitted their advertisement and target audience to the content server, the content server 2 interrogates the user profile database to identify the potential matches. Figure 3 schematically illustrates a record for a user which may exist in the user profile database 14. A first field 32 may, for example, hold the user's first name and a second record 34 may hold the user's surname. The user may then be associated with a unique ID held in a field 36. They may also be associated with a telephone number in field 38, date of birth in field 40 and gender in field 42. Optionally, additional fields including credit card information and address may also be included, for example in field 43, in order to facilitate transactions between the user and a merchant such that information required by a merchant in order to complete an order can be partly pre-filled on behalf of the user by the content server 2 or by the internet proxy server 10. Preference fields 44 to 50 may also be included where the user can specify, for example, that they are interested in sports but not interested in health and beauty, and the like. The preference fields may initially be filled by a user in a registration process. However, the user profile database can include finer levels of granularity, for example a user who has indicated that they like motor sport may in fact turn out to only be interested in motorcycle racing and not have an interest in, for example, Formula 1 and touring cars. The user profile database can be updated dynamically, as will be explained later, in order to refine its model of the user's preferences and user's daily routine.

An additional field 52 may be included to hold an indication of the model of telephone used by the user. This information is useful, as it assists in the selection of advertisements, helping to ensure that the user's device is able to display the selected advertisements. A further field 54 may be included to indicate the operator of the network to which the user's device connects.

Figure 4 schematically shows the process by which an advertiser submits their advertisement to the content server for delivery to selected individuals. The process starts at step 80 where the advertiser uploads their advertisement and a target user profile to the content server 2. Control then passes to step 82 where the content server examines the user profiles within the user profile database 4 to locate candidates matching the advertiser's target profile. Control may then pass to step 84 where the advertiser may optionally be given an opportunity to approve the target list. This is particularly useful where the advertiser may have elected to pay on a per user basis as if the target audience is badly defined it may reach far too many people or alternatively it may reach virtually no-one. Thus if an advertiser has indicated that they require approval, control is passed from step 84 to step 86 where the advertiser can receive an indication about the people selected for targeting, for example their number, and it can then decide to approve or disapprove the individuals selected for targeting. If the advertiser disapproves the target list, for example because they have defined their target audience far too broadly then control is passed to step 88 where the advertiser or merchant modifies the target profile and from there control is returned to step 82. The advertiser need not know details of the people selected for targeting, such as their names, but instead may simply be given information as to the number of people selected and further information such as their demographic group(s), gleaned from the user profile of those selected.

If the advertiser did not require approval at step 84 or, the advertiser approved the distribution list at step 86, then control passes to step 90 where the content server generates a user specific data package. Given that many individual advertisers may have presented advertisements for presentation, and that each will have their own target audience, then the data package for each user become highly specific and is generated on a user by user basis. Thus the server generates for each individual user a customised data package which is associated with the user's telephone number. Indeed, the advertisements could have fields which are populated with the name of the recipient such that each data package is unique to each recipient/user. The individual data packages are then placed in a transmit queue at step 92. At step 94 the content server may poll the telecommunications network in order to check for availability for sending a user specific data package, or alternatively the telecommunications network could indicate its availability as and when its load reduces below threshold values and, on this basis, individual data packages are sent at step 96 as and when it is appropriate to do so.

The data packages may conveniently be downloaded to mobile devices 1 at times when the network is relatively quiet. Thus it would be expected that the majority of packages will be downloaded at night time and are therefore stored, or cached, on a user's handset for display at some predetermined time or when the user is detected to be using their handset.

Figure 5 schematically illustrates a procedure for displaying the data received in the data transmission. The process commences at step 120 where the received data is temporarily cached. From step 120, control may pass to step 122 where the data may be decompressed if data compression had been used as part of the transmissions protocol. From step 122 control then passes to step 124 when an Nth advertisement in an advertisement in an advertisement queue is selected for display. Generally the mobile device will work through the advertisements in order and may also be programmed to cycle round such that, if only ten advertisements have downloaded for display, then once all ten have been displayed the process is repeated again at the first one. Alternatively the content/advertisements may be displayed in random order or in order of priority as determined for example by the amount an advertiser has paid. Supposing that an Nth message had been selected at step 124, control is passed to step 126 where the message is displayed on the display screen of the mobile phone for a period "message time" set either by the advertiser or the operator of the content server. In general the length of time of which an advertisement is displayed on the screen is determined by the advertiser following negotiations with the operator of the service. Thus, if an advertiser wishes the message to be displayed for longer then they will typically be charged at a higher rate by the content server. Control passes from step 126 to step 128 where a running test is performed to see whether the user has intervened during the time period for which the message is displayed. If the user doesn't intervene then control is passed to step 130 where the value of N is incremented such that the next advertisement is selected for display and then control is returned to step 124. The user may have an option to intervene either, for example, to skip the advertisement because it is of no interest to them or alternatively to hold it on the screen for longer or indeed to "bookmark" it such that the user can return to it. If such functionality is provided, such interventions may be detected at step 128, causing control to be passed to step 130 where a test is made to see whether the user has increased the time for which they have viewed the message or have bookmarked it for later viewing. Increasing the time that the message is displayed or bookmarking it is indicative of the fact that the advertisement is of interest to the user and this fact is recorded at step 132. This information can then be transmitted back to the content server 2 and then downloaded to the user profile database 4 such that a model concerning the user's likes and dislikes can be dynamically updated. If step 130 determines that the user has not increased the time for which the advertisement could be viewed, control passes to step 134, where a test is made to determine whether the time for which the advertisement could be viewed has been decreased by the user. This can be done either by skipping the advertisement altogether, or by decreasing the time for which the advertisement can be viewed without skipping it. Thus if the test carried out at step 134 determines that the viewing time was decreased by the user, control passes to step 136, which determines whether the advertisement was skipped. Skipping an advertisement does not provide any real information about the user's preferences, as advertisements may be skipped for many reasons. Thus if it is determined that the user skipped the advertisement, no data is recorded. However, decreasing the time for which the advertisement could be viewed without skipping it indicates that the user is not particularly interested in the advertisement. Thus, if this user behaviour is detected, it is recorded at step 138, and information relating to this behaviour can be transmitted to the content server 2 to update the user's profile stored in the user profile database 4.

Advertisements may provide the user with the option to delete them, such that they do not reappear on the screen of the user's telephone. If this option is selected, it indicates that the user has no interest in the advertisement, and this data can be transmitted to the content server 2 so the user profile database can be updated to ensure that the advertisement is not shown again as indicated at step 140 and 142. It is important to note, however, that the advertisement is not deleted from the content server but is merely suppressed, i.e. prevented from being displayed on the user's telephone.

Thus the fact that the user actively interfaces with a mobile telephone could be used to determine a level of interest in the content of the advertisements and information concerning the time for which a user viewed an advertisement, whether they skipped it, bookmarked it or "deleted" it can be relayed back such that the user profile database can be progressively refined.

The application running the process shown in Figure 5 can also monitor other functionality within the telephone, such as calls made, wireless application sessions opened outside of the context of the advertisement presented to the user and the path the user travels and at what time they do so. The user's geographical position can be determined, for example, by knowledge of the cell that the mobile telephone is currently in. All of this information can also be returned to the user profile database such that an increasingly detailed picture of a user's habits can be built up. If in the initial registration process a user specified that they lived in a first town but failed to indicate that they regularly travelled to a second town, then the user profile database can be updated to reflect that the user is frequently in the second town and as a consequence merchants who wish to target people who pass in proximity to their premises would gain access to a customer which had previously been excluded from the target profile because the user profile database becomes updated to show that the user is frequently near the merchant located in the second town even though the initial user registration did not indicate that they would be interested in receiving information relating to merchants that are geographically located in the second town.

Rather than merely receiving advertisements, users may be given the opportunity to participate in a process which leads to the delivery of a coupon, either physically to their home address, or electronically to their mobile device such that they can redeem the coupon when making a purchase. The coupon could be in the form of a one dimensional or two dimensional bar code or other symbol which can be displayed on the display of the device so as to be read by a bar code scanner. Alternatively individual coupons may include a unique identity code such that the user can cause them to be transmitted to a merchant's computer, for example over the mobile telecommunications network, although other communication schemes can also be envisaged such as use of Bluetooth, such that the coupon can be redeemed.

The advertisements may be complex messages and may include audio and video content rather than merely text files. The message may also include hot-spots within the screen where clicking on a hotspot may initiate some further process, such as sending of a text message, initiation of a voice call, or initiation of an internet session.

It will be appreciated that permanently updating the display and or running the backlight would have serious consequences on the battery life of a mobile device. Therefore the application running the display includes routines for assessing the likelihood that a user is in the vicinity of the mobile telephone and is looking at it. These routines may take advantage of hardware features located within the mobile telephone. For example, where the mobile telephone has an integrated camera whose lens is usually uncovered, a check can be made of the image being received by the camera in order to determine whether the image has contrasting areas or not. It can be seen that if a mobile telephone was in a user's pocket then the light intensity around the mobile phone would generally be expected to be low and the image would be fairly uniform. Thus a low intensity or uniform image would be indicative of the fact that the user was not looking a the mobile phone.

Figure 6 shows a power saving algorithm to be implemented in parallel with the display of advertisements. The power saving algorithm commences at step 150 where a check is made to see if the keyboard is currently in use, or if the phone is currently in use, for example because it is engaged in a voice call or a data call. If the phone is in use, then a decision is made not to interrupt the present operation of a phone as this would be annoying to the user. Once step 150 determines that the phone is no longer actively in use by the user, for example because they have stopped pressing keys, then control is passed to step 152 where a first time out period "time out period 1" is counted down in order to ensure that the display of adverts is not initiated too quickly when in reality the user may just be wondering what to do next but is still actively trying to use the phone. However, the time out period may be set to a short or zero value. This may be a choice of the network operator or be controlled by a priority associated with the advertisements/content. From step 152 control passes to step 154 where the message display process shown in steps 124 to 144 of Figure 5 is initiated for a second time period "period 2". Period 2 is selected such that several of the advertisements can be displayed but also that the display process is inhibited at the end of that period if there is no further indication that the user is still interested in the advertisements. At the end of period 2, control is passed to step 156 where a test is made to determine if a user is still likely to be paying attention. This may be indicated by, say, the user pressing the buttons during the display of advertisements at step 154 in order to skip some advertisements and/or view or bookmark other ones. If step 156 determines that the user is still likely to be paying attention then control is passed to step 154 again such that the further advertisements can be displayed. However if step 156 determines that it is likely that the user is no longer paying attention then control is passed to step 158 where a power save mode is entered. The power save mode 158 need not initially cease display of the advertisements. It may phase its power saving operation and that a first power saving technique might be to reduce the intensity of the backlight on the display. From then the rate at which the advertisements are updated could be reduced as this reduces the computational overhead within the mobile telephone and similarly the resolution of the display could be downgraded as this would also save computational power within the mobile telephone. Ultimately if no user intervention is received within a further relatively short period, then display of the advertisements may be suspended completely and the phone can enter a standby mode.

The application displaying the advertisements may monitor the battery voltage such that the behaviour of the display mechanism can be varied as a function of battery voltage thus when the battery is fully charged or has a charge above a first threshold, then the advertisement process may run for longer than would be the case when the battery is partially discharged. As the charge remaining on the battery drops the advertisement process may be inhibited altogether so as to prevent any inadvertent shortening of the standby time that the mobile telephone can support. It can also be seen that, during charging, when unlimited power is effectively available then the advertisement display process may run continuously and may also illuminate the backlight in the display continuously in order to maximise visual impact.

It is thus possible to provide a mechanism for pushing tailored adverts to the mobile phone of suitable candidate recipients for those advertisements in a way such that the advertisement is displayed in the "idle screen" of the mobile phone thereby relieving the user of the burden of having to interact with the phone in order to retrieve the advertisement. The advertisement need not cost the user anything, and indeed they may receive credits on their phone bill for agreeing to receive the advertisements. The advertisements are, naturally, paid for by the commercial concerns that are advertising themselves.

The content of the advertisements may be any media or multimedia format supported for presentation by the display device. Thus text, graphics, pictures, audio, video or combinations of the above can be included within an advertisement. Activation of the vibrator within a mobile telephone is also possible.

Free content, such as news, quizzes and so on may be interspersed with the advertisements to attract user's attention so as to encourage people to remain looking at the display.

The user information may also be used to pre-fill fields required for transactions when such information is stored in the user profile. Merchants may provide a field mapping definition when they submit advertisements so as to facilitate pre-filling forms.

The method may further be adapted to cause content (advertisements, messages, reminders, etc) to be displayed based on the mobile device's location - which could itself be determined from a positioning device such as a GPS module or be determined from a network cell identity. The content may be displayed in a variety of ways - such as full screen, in a window, as the desk top or the like

By way of completeness, Figure 7 schematically illustrates the components within a mobile phone 200. The mobile phone architecture can be regarded as being divided into a data- processing side 202 and a RF and signal processing side 204. The RF and signal processing side 204 includes a receiver and transmitter, analogue to digital converters and digital to analogue converters and other components well known in the art. The data- processing portion 202 includes a data-processor 210 in communication with a memory 212 which can store the application for running the advertisement display together with the advertisements themselves. The data-processor 210 can also drive a display 214 via a display driver 213 and interfaces with a user keyboard 216. The data-processor 210 and memory 212 may also connect to a camera 218 which, as mentioned before, can be interrogated as part of the decision making process as to whether the phone is likely to be in use, or has now been placed in someone's pocket or handbag.

Claims

1. A method of pushing information to a mobile device having a connection to a wireless telephone network, the method comprising the steps of: a) identifying at least one item of information to be provided to a user of the mobile device; and b) opening a data transfer session using the wireless telephone network to send the at least one item of information specifically to the mobile device; and wherein the information is adapted to be received by a application executing within the mobile device and to be presented to a user via a user interface.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the at least one item of information comprises advertisements, offers, redeemable electronic coupons, games, news, music, or video, and wherein the mobile device is arranged to present the at least one item of information during a period when the user is not actively using the interface.

3. A method as claimed in claim 2, in which the mobile terminal device displays the at least one item of information after a timeout period has elapsed following the use of an input device.

4. A method as claimed in claim 3, in which the mobile device is adapted to present a plurality of data items to a user, the items being presented on a display.

5. A method as claimed in claim 4, in which the plurality of data items are presented sequentially.

6. A method as claimed in claim 4 or 5, in which a user can interface with the mobile device to instruct it to vary the time for which an item of data is displayed.

7. A method as claimed in claim 6, in which the mobile device is arranged to record user interactions to vary the time for which items are displayed, and to communicate this to a content server.

8. A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims in which the at least one item of information for presentation is selected for presentation to a user based on a user profile.

9. A method as claimed in claim 8, in which a user's profile is updated based on information collected at the user mobile device.

10. A method as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein an application running on the mobile device logs the device position and transmits this to the content server such that the content server can tailor content based on a user's current position or expected trajectory.

11. A method as claimed in any of the preceding claims in which advertisers pay the content server manager to present their advertisements to users matching a selected user profile.

12. A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein the mobile device presents the at least one data item during periods when it determines that a user may be receptive to the data items.

13. A method as claimed in claim 12, in which the at least one data item is presented in a period following use of the mobile device by the user.

14. A method as claim 12 or 13, wherein the device has a camera and the data processor examines the image from the camera to assess whether to present the data or whether to enter a power saving mode.

15. A method as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein a data item includes a link to initiate a browser session.

16. A method as claimed in any of the preceding claims wherein a data item includes a link to initiate a SMS message.

17. A method as claimed in any of the preceding claims wherein a data item includes a link to initiate a voice call.

18. A method as claimed in any of the preceding claims wherein the application running on the mobile device includes a tracking mechanism for tracking a user's browsing activities.

19. A method as claimed in any of the preceding claims wherein the application causes the mobile device to route its browsing activities via a proxy server such that a user's browsing can be recorded.

20. A method as claimed in any of the preceding claims wherein the at least one data item is sent to the mobile device for caching and later display to a user.

21. A computer program product for causing a programmable data processor to perform the method of claims 1 to 20.

22. A computer program product for causing a mobile device to perform the method of claims 1 to 20.

23. A content management system for selecting content to be displayed on a mobile telephone, and for delivering the content to the mobile telephone for automatic display on a display screen of the mobile telephone.

24. A client for a mobile telephone, where the client is arranged to receive content transmitted to the mobile telephone and to display the content of a display of the mobile telephone without requiring user intervention.