These days, you can get sports updates, bank balances and stock prices via the short message service SMS on your mobile phone. Germany was one of the first countries to launch an SMS-soap opera. And under a month ago, German mobile phone users were able to pass the time away reading their first short message-sent novel.

Special SMS services are becoming increasingly popular. In May, technology company Materna led the way with an SMS-soap in Germany, only to be closely followed by companies in Britain and the US.

And as mobile phone technology is becoming increasingly similar, sending text messages to areas all over the world is becoming more straightforward.

The latest in more high-brow short message services is Poem-Me, a service which sends original poetry straight to the mobile phone. Subscribers to Poem-Me come from all over the world, including Japan, Indonesia, Israel and America.

At current the Poem-me service has around 250 subscribers paying 6 Euros a month for short, thought-provoking text message poems sent to their mobile or e-mail address five days a week.

As seasonal special offer, anyone buying the service as an unusual Christmas present will also get a free month's subscription for themselves. So for those looking for an alternative present for a stressed friend or colleague how about a month's worth of original Shakespeare poetry sent direct to their mobile phone?

The idea could set a trend too in SMS-writing, with mobile owners finishing off messages Shakespeare-style:

"Therefore make haste. I must go write again
To other friends; and so farewell" (King Henry IV)