Mobile internet: A Shining light in troubled times.

Much has been written about the growth of the mobile internet and the effect of the iPhone on the mobile browsing habits of thousands of millions internet users. This blog hopes to slice through these statistics and provide some thoughts on ways in which content owners and publishers can make use of these trends.

Firstly, lets take a look at the numbers. – Some startling statistics from a number of sources have been appearing which highlight some very exciting trends:

• ComScore reports that among the audience of 63.2 million people who accessed news and information on their mobile devices in January 2009, 22.4 million (35 percent) did so daily; more than double the size of the audience last year.
• U.S mobile data revenues grew 7.3% in the final quarter of 2008 compared to same quarter in 2007.
• Growth of the mobile web in the UK was eight times faster than that of the PC-based internet in the third quarter of 2008, according to Nielsen Online.
• Smartphone growth has been a stand out with 3.7% growth in smartphone in Q4 2008 compared with the same period last year. Source: Gartner.
• In Europe, IDC’s European Mobile Phone Tracker, vendors shipped 9.3 million units in 4Q08, 25.9% higher than the 7.4 million shipped in 4Q07. Source: IDC European Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, February 24, 200
• In Europe also, Apple achieved a 10.7% market share in the smartphone segment, making it the third biggest segment player in Western Europe. Source: IDC European Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, February 24, 200

The statistics are swimming against the current economic trends. In fact some would argue the recession has helped sped up the migration to mobile data and voice use as people look to rationalise their communication spend by ditching their traditional fixed connection, including fixed broadband. The ‘cutting of the cord’ effect seems to be gaining some notoriety. A study from The Nielsen Company says that more than 20 million U.S. telephone households (17 percent) are wireless substituters—homes without landlines that rely solely on a mobile phone for their home telecommunications. http://www.nielsenmobile.com/html/press%20releases/WirelessSubstitution.html. Whatever the case, one clear trend is blinding its way forward, more and more people will be using the mobile web to get information more and more often.

While the trend toward mobile internet is fascinating, we still have problems with traditional internet sites being presented incorrectly for mobile. We are not alone in believing that a correctly formatted mobile site is going to deliver a better experience for mobile uses as well utilising the unique features of mobile like location and movement. In fact some of the big boys agree with the launch of rolling out “m.” mobile sites specifically formatted for mobile including m.twitter.com, m.facebook.com, m.myspace.com (the m. Is a different story addressed here http://www.mobiletech.no/index.php/blog/817-one-url-regardless-of-device - ) The mobile version of facebook has been a big success and many of the major newspapers in each region have opted for sites optimised for the mobile phone and the iphone in particular e.g http://mobil.dn.se. We at Mobiletech would go as far to say that sites and services built for mobile will start to become a major success in their own right, developing a loyal following amongst mobile only users.

With better service analytics, the case for mobile will be further strengthened by the application of a common currency across the mobile internet. The mobile internet has more information than the traditional such as location, movement and presence. This information can be utilised to achieve better inventory management and ad performance – ultimately leading to the mobile channel being one of the most valuable to content owners as a source of revenue. TNS gallup statistic here in Norway are powered by Mobiletech’s mobile metrics tool http://rapp.tns-gallup.no/Default.aspx?aid=9072853 Mobiletech would like to have the opportunity to demonstrate the immediate effects of a well designed and executed mobile site. Talk to us about how we can give you the tools to thrive in today’s fastest growing media channel.