It looks like wireless carriers should refocus their mobile data marketing on men in the wake of a Juniper Research study that expects mobile sports service revenue to double to $1.3 billion by the end of this year compared with 2004. These services include video clips, scoring updates and streaming content. Combine sports with wireless pornography sales, which are expected to have huge upside, and you have yourself a great one-two bundle. Juniper forecasts there will be more than 210 million mobile sports services users by 2009, including 120 million in Asia. If the sports/porn opportunity starts to resonate with carriers, you wonder whether it will give them even more impetus to launch high-speed networks.

According to Pulver.com's Jonathan Askin, Vonage plans to raise more private equity rather than do an IPO - a development reported several weeks ago by BusinessWeek. There a several ways to look at Vonage's plans. The most straightfoward is if it can raise more private equity to drive subscriber growth and turn profitable in the process, why do an IPO? The more intriguing reason to avoid an IPO could involve Vonage CEO Jeff Citron's settlement with the SEC in 2003. While this is just speculation, Citron may be barred from serving as a director and/or executive with a publicly-traded company. This means Citron would have to step aside for Vonage to do an IPO, or he'll continue as CEO until Vonage solicits a takeover offer. If I was a betting man, I'd say Vonage and its institutional investors are counting on a deal happening this year.

Another quarter, another strong quarter for Research in Motion. The company added a record 470,000 subscribers in the fiscal fourth-quarter - which increased its total to 2.5 million customers. Annual sales surpassed $1 billion for the first time. That said, there are clouds on the horizon as analysts were disappointed they did not hear the kind of bullish growth guidance they were expecting. Keep an eye on how Good, Visto and Seven make out this year. There are growing indications wireless carriers are looking for cheaper mobile e-mail alternatives as they look to push the service into the mainstream. Rogers Wireless, for example, has quietly signed deals with Visto and Seven, while Bell Mobility recently did a deal with Sproqit Technologies. Garban analyst Richard Williams wasted no time in downgrading RIM to a "sell" from "neutral" today, while dropping his 12-month stock target price to US$55 from US$85. "Lower guidance only confirms our concerns about growth decelerating at a time that the stock is extremely expensive," he said.