To call it mobile mania would be an understatement. Over 50% of Britons now own a mobile - a staggering 85% above the same time last year - with analysts predicting that penetration will be 60% by the end of the year. It is quite possible that in a few years time it will hit 80%.

The ubiquity of the mobile is already changing relationships. Parents can no longer eavesdrop on what their children are up to through the fixed link, but they bond through knowing where their children are and through text messaging. For youngsters it brings back the herd instinct as they head out alone, meeting up later after messaging.

And we haven't seen the start of it. The new Wap (wireless application protocol) phones linked to the internet are slow, often incompatible, and very flaky in performance - but interesting applications are emerging. You can get instant news, live share prices, plus step-by-step directions to the nearest cash machine or pizza parlour. During the next few years, as phones get smarter and faster - and with the arrival of continuous "broadband" access to the internet - the phone will know who you are and where you are, enabling you to consult a doctor remotely, call up live pictures of traffic jams (or anything linked to a camera). It will be a goldmine for enterprise as thousands of programmers work out innovative applications. The mobile will become the most popular product the industrialised world has known - and continuous technological change could induce users to buy new models every few years.

It offers developing countries a chance to leapfrog over their lack of telephone infrastructure (half the world has never made a phone call) into the 21st century. That will require new social entrepreneurs with skills to persuade multinationals to allow cheap Third World access to their satellites as they pass unused overhead. If developing countries aren't hooked into the information revolution, they will fall further behind.