Evolving handset technology and more sophisticated mobile apps are driving up mobile social network usage.

Consumers using mobile social networks today are mainly checking messages, status updates and comments of friends rather than posting photos or comments themselves, according to a recent study by ABI Research. However, this pattern is changing as more consumers have access to better-equipped mobile phones and mobile social network applications that allow for easy uploading and communication.

"As the adoption of smartphones increases, more consumers who use online social networks want to be able to connect on the go, to be more active and upload photos," said Michael Wolf, research director at ABI Research. "The current demographic for mobile social networking tends to be people who already use online social networks -- more tech-savvy and skewing a little bit younger.

"Social networking, as a whole, is broadening, and we'll see the same phenomenon on mobile," he said. "Mobile social networking's audience will broaden over time to mirror the trend of the online space, eventually reaching the mass market."

Today more than 60 percent of those who access a social network on their phone do so mainly to check for messages or comments from friends, compared to less than 30 percent who upload photos, according to the ABI study.

Over time, however, a growing number of consumers will share photos and use social network messaging and email, which will translate to longer and more frequent usage of social networks on mobile.

Today more than half of those who use a social network on their PC do so on a daily basis, while only approximately 17 percent of those accessing a mobile social network do so as frequently, according to the study.

This disparity in usage between online and mobile social networks will shrink over time as consumers become more accustomed to using their mobile phone as one of the primary means of keeping in touch with their networks of friends and associates.

"As we've seen with online social networking, consumers are spending more time online, with their social networks [as] their main hub of communications and entertainment," Mr. Wolf said. "We see more consumers communicating through mobile social networks and spending more time there as well.

"This offers an opportunity for advertisers and marketers to see what their interests are, focus advertising on this demographic and spend more time connecting with this community on their mobile phone," he said.

ABI Research also expects that as all-you-can-eat data plans become more prevalent and affordable, mobile Internet usage in general -- and mobile social networking specifically -- will explode.

"When flat-rate data plans become more common and less expensive, consumers will want to spend more time on the mobile Web, and mobile social networking is one of those areas that will experience growth," Mr. Wolf said.

"Consumers will want to experiment more with content as their fears go away, so they'll be more open to use more mobile data services," he said. "It's going to increase the usage of mobile social networking, and as carriers let consumers use the mobile Web more freely, we'll see the rise of mobile video as well."

The fact is that more consumers are really starting to adopt social networking on their mobile phone.

The combination of more capable phones with flat-rate mobile broadband and pre-installed social network applications will help cement social networks as hubs for entertainment and communication, regardless of the screen consumers use to access them.

ABI's "Mobile Social Networking" study attempts to demystify some of the key issues around mobile social networking. It forms part of the firm's mobile content research service.

The data in this report are derived from two separate surveys conducted by ABI.

The first, conducted in March, was a sample of more than 1,000 mobile subscribers in the United States.

The second, conducted in July, was a sample of more than 500 mobile subscribers that were users of online social networks

ABI's surveys show that mobile social networking mirrors the online space in the U.S., with the big brands Facebook and MySpace dominating.

One survey found that 70 percent of those consumers who visit a mobile social network have visited MySpace, while 68 percent of those have visited Facebook.

"A lot of people use both -- many people have multiple mobile social networks," Mr. Wolf said. "We didn't see a ton of penetration of mobile-only social networks, although sites such as MocoSpace and Dodgeball do pop up on the radar.

"We are seeing a strong interest in things like JuiceCaster and Loopt, which provide specific value-adds in the mobile domain," he said. "Location-based functionality has the most potential for growth, although mobile-only social networks are still fairly small compared to MySpace and Facebook."