Many key developments in digital media stand poised to redefine the way we consume content across platforms in 2010. Among these will be the introduction of paid-for content, further blurring of traditional TV broadcasting and online video distribution, and a significant acceleration in mobile internet use. This last is particularly important, for while content will continue to converge under the digital umbrella, the mobile internet can bring it to a wider and more consistently engaged audience.

Apps are undoubtedly the poster boys of the smartphone revolution. With more than 100,000 of them now available, their diversity is clearly appealing to a broad audience. Of the 17m mobile subscribers who used an app in October 2009, maps were the most popular, followed by weather, social networking and search apps.

In many ways the mobile internet will this year finish what the fixed internet started. One could argue that the internet has always been fundamentally flawed: the most up-to-the minute, real-time distribution mechanism in the history of media is constrained by access and hardware. The mobile internet looks set to rectify this, providing round-the-clock, immediately accessible news, information, entertainment and communications. At the risk of hailing the coming of yet another false dawn, expect the mobile internet to be big in 2010.