Here’s an interesting tidbit—“mobile transactions for services used on PCs are helping compensate for the flagging growth in revenue from mobile content staples, such as ring tones and wallpapers” according to Andrew Bud, executive chairman of mobile billing aggregator mBlox and global chairman of industry association the Mobile Entertainment Forum. He told Informa Telecoms & Media that the heyday of digital jewellery (handset personalization products) is over and the fastest-growing business for mBlox is mobile-billed PC services, as games and social networks offer the option as a way for kids to pay.

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Of course, it doesn’t mean people have stopped personalizing their handsets, only that they’re increasingly not paying to do so—and that doesn’t mean piracy, it also means increased amounts of free user-generated content and easier ways to use personal photos and MP3s. Another thing to point out is data—paying a buck for a song downloaded over mobile might lead to massive data charges, while paying a buck for a hat for your avatar won’t have that hidden cost. The article notes there is a danger with scammers using the mobile numbers registered by users to “send them bogus billing messages to get them to unwittingly pay for stuff they haven’t requested”.