They were a big thing you'd see everywhere around you (TV, magazines etc.), except that you probably classified them in your head under a different label becaus

They were a big thing you'd see everywhere around you (TV, magazines etc.), except that you probably classified them in your head under a different label because they were mostly about ringtones and wallpapers and accessed via premium SMS services that would respond with "WAP push" SMS with a download URL in it. Games were more expensive and less popular (though I still wouldn't call them "niche") as compatibility was a mess, but they sure were there way before 2008. My regional context is Poland, but it couldn't have been much different in Germany - otherwise I wouldn't see a service exactly like that being parodied at last Chaos Communication Camp by... actually deploying a working SMS service on the camp's GSM network:)