Apple iPad accounts for more than 25 percent of U.S. Mobile Web Usage

The latest research from NetMarketShare shows just how dominate Apple is when it comes to mobile web access and consumption. Their latest research shows that more than 1 percent of all Internet browsing is now done on an iPad and in the US, over 2% of overall browsing.

Apple’s iPhone is the number one way Americans are accessing the mobile Web. Put another way, Apple owns over 60% of mobile web browsing. Considering that the iPad is just over a year old, it is shocking how quickly people have gravitated to using it for daily mobile web consumption. Apple has connected today’s mobile consumers to the web better than anyone.

The iPhone took the top ranking, accounting for 35.2 percent of the U.S mobile Web browsing market share, the iPad at 25.5% of mobile web browsing, followed by Android devices, with a 31.6% share.

In June, ComScore reported that the Apple iPad accounts for 97 percent of all tablet traffic in the U.S., despite the entrance of highly anticipated competitors like the Samsung Galaxy Tab, Motorola Xoom, BlackBerry PlayBook, the HP TouchPad and others.

According to comScore, Android-based tablets took up only 0.6 percent of all tablet traffic, while “other” tablets (in other words, the PlayBook), took up 0.1 percent.

Additional research from Net Applications shows that in the US, smartphones and tablets accounted for 8.2 percent of all browsing activities during June. Apple’s iOS-based iPhone and iPad, which run Safari, accounted for a combined five percent share of the U.S. browser market.

Android-based smartphones commanded 2.6 percent of the U.S. browser market, according to Net Applications. By contrast, Research In Motion’s BlackBerry platform accounted for only a 0.57 percent share.

BOTTOM LINE: Mobile web usage is growing quickly with the continued increases in smartphone and tablet sales (mainly the iPad). What’s your mobile strategy? Let QWASI help your organization discover the power of mobile.

July 10, 2011 in Blog   |   No Comments

2011 Mobile Budgets allocating "More Mobile"

As the end of the third quarter comes to a close this year, corporate budgets are being reviewed and Mobile is finally getting respect within the organization from the top down. However, as this new channel continues to grow, departments are beginning to take a closer look at where they can grow and how they can save using mobile messaging, marketing and mobile apps.

In the past, most marketers took from digital budgets to fund a mobile.

For 2011, budgets have grown from single campaigns to funding a complete mobile strategy. This has created the need to create a new line item on the budget so companies can graduate mobile from an “emerging technology” to a proven channel – it’s own format.

WRESTLING BUDGETS
How are companies wrestling money from other budgets? Many take it from digital budgets. That type of thinking though is short sighted as digital marketing and interactive services all achieve different goals to drive sales, increase retention and even reclaim lost revenue through cost savings. Many agencies are adding to the complex budget process by pulling in dollars for their “digital agency” where these monies typically get put into distinct components of a budget leaving little room for mobile. What is fueling most of the mobile spend within these agencies is shifting the budget from traditional media to digital.

THE SHIFT
As spending shifts from traditional media to digital media and mobile, new lines will be expanded on budgets to better clarify the type of spending. This will lead to a greater need for mobile analytics and reporting. How much is my iPhone App generating? What is the ROI for my Mobile Advertising campaigns? What is the lift in spend from my customers receiving SMS Alerts on a daily basis? ROI tracking will become another budget requirement within the digital category. While many agencies push back on measurement, studies and direct spend to return calculations, companies will demand greater oversight and results from their investments.

According to a MMA (Mobile Marketing Association) survey released in June 2010, they found that marketers in the US plan to increase spending on mobile 124% next year – up from $2.3 billion to $5.5 billion – with a budget allocation for mobile representing almost 4% of overall marketing budgets. That total includes paid and unpaid mobile segments including SMS, mobile websites, location-based services, mobile video and mobile email. Forrester, on the contrary predicts US spending on mobile marketing will grow from $561 million this year to $748 million in 2011.

It’s time to start planning your 2011. It’s time to get MORE mobile.

September 13, 2010 in Blog   |   1 Comment

2010 Mobile Access survey shows "more people doing more things on their cell phones"

Mobile trends continue to show in 2010 that people are talking less yet doing more with their mobile phones and devices. According to the latest report from the Pew Research Center, their 2010 Mobile Access Survey shows that now 38% of users access the internet on their mobile device. However, the two mobile activities people do the most include: taking pictures on their phone (76%) and sending or receiving text messages (72%).

Other popular activities by mobile users include:
34% Play a Game
34% Send/Receive an Email
33% Play Music
30% Send/Receive IM
34% Record a Video (quickly growing)

Compared to April 2009, 76% of people take pictures with their phones, up from 66% and 72% send/receive text messages compared to 65% in 2009. Other comparisons include: over a third play games, up from about a quarter. A third of people now play music on their phones, compared to 21% in 2009, but the biggest jump is in recording video: 34% vs. 19% before. Given the number of new video-enabled phones released throughout the last year, it is expected this will grow to the heights of pictures.

Additional mobile activities are now being tracked. Among all cell phone owners:
* 54% have used their mobile device to send someone a photo or video
* 23% have accessed a social networking site using their phone
* 20% have used their phone to watch a video
* 15% have posted a photo or video online
* 11% have purchased a product using their phone
* 11% have made a charitable donation by text message
* 10% have used their mobile phone to access a status update service such as Twitter

Mobile Internet usage growing.
Nearly 89 million people in the U.S. have used the mobile internet in the past year — close to one third of the total current U.S. population.

Pew also found that 53 percent of Americans who use their phones to go online do so at least once per day. That’s more than 47 million daily mobile internet users in the U.S.

One would think that these growth numbers come solely from the increase in smartphones. And while there certainly is a bump, consumers are using more mobile internet even on their regular cell phone. According to Forrester Research, by the end of 2009 only 17 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers owned smartphones. So while the iPhone and Android user consumes more mobile web, the average user using newer feature phones are also hitting the mobile web in droves.

Mobile Web Usage by Demographic:

African-Americans and Hispanics leading mobile usage trends
When we break out mobile web usage by demographic, you find 46 percent of non-Hispanic blacks and 51 percent of English-speaking Hispanics using their phones for internet access, compared with only 33 percent of non-Hispanic white Americans.

The survey also found cell phone ownership is higher among African-Americans and Latinos than among whites (87% vs. 80%) and minority cell phone owners take advantage of a much greater range of their phones’ features compared with white mobile phone users.

Mobile Web Usage by Age

About 65 percent of U.S. cell phone users ages 18-29 go online from their phones, compared with 43 percent of those aged 30-49. Young adults are heavily invested in the mobile web, although 30-49 year olds are gaining ground.

Nine in ten 18-29 year olds own a cell phone, and these young cell owners are significantly more likely than those in other age groups to engage in all of the mobile data applications we asked about in our survey. Among 18-29 year old cell phone owners:

* 95% send or receive text messages
* 93% use their phone to take pictures
* 81% send photos or videos to others
* 65% access the internet on their mobile device
* 64% play music on their phones
* 60% use their phones to play games or record a video
* 52% have used their phone to send or receive email
* 48% have accessed a social networking site on their phone
* 46% use instant messaging on their mobile device
* 40% have watched a video on their phone
* 33% have posted a photo or video online from their phone
* 21% have used a status update service such as Twitter from their phone
* 20% have purchased something using their mobile phone
* 19% have made a charitable donation by text message

Although young adults have the highest levels of mobile data application use among all age groups, utilization of these services is growing fast among 30-49 year olds. Compared with a similar point in 2009, cell owners ages 30-49 are significantly more likely to use a range of mobile data applications on a handheld device.

The mobile data applications with the largest year-to-year increases among the 30-49 year old cohort include taking pictures (83% of 30-49 year old cell owners now do this, a 12-point increase from 2009); recording videos (39% do this, an 18-point increase from 2009); playing music (36% do this, a 15-point increase); using instant messaging (35% now do this, a 14-point increase); and accessing the internet (43% now do this, a 12-point increase compared with 2009).

For more information, click here: Pew Internet Research 2010 Mobile Access Survey

Tap into the power of mobile marketing, give us a call toll-free today @ 877-747-9274..

July 9, 2010 in Blog   |   No Comments

Teen Text Messaging Statistics – Teens Texting more than ever (May 2010)

Text Messaging Becomes Centerpiece Communication

Published by Pew Internet & American Life Project
The mobile phone has become the favored communication hub for the majority of American teens. And texting is the preferred channel of basic communication between teens and their friends with phone calls coming in second on the list. Some 75% of 12-17 year-olds now own cell phones, up from 45% in 2004. Those phones have become indispensable tools in teen communication patterns.

Fully 72% of all teens (88% of teen cell phone users) are text-messagers. That is a sharp rise from the 51% of teens who were texters in 2006. More than half of teens (54%) are daily texters. Of all teens, the frequency of texting has overtaken all common forms of interaction with their friends.

1-in-3 teens sends more than 100 text messages a day, or 3000 texts a month.

2/3 of teens texters say they are more likely to use their cell phones to text their friends than talk to them to them by cell phone.

Among those teen texters:
* Half of teens send 50 or more text messages a day, or 1,500 texts a month, and one in three send more than 100 texts a day, or more than 3,000 texts a month.
* 15% of teens who are texters send more than 200 texts a day, or more than 6,000 texts a month.
* Boys typically send and receive 30 texts a day; girls typically send and receive 80 messages per day.
* Teen texters ages 12-13 typically send and receive 20 texts a day.
* 14-17 year-old texters typically send and receive 60 text messages a day.
* Older girls who text are the most active, with 14-17 year-old girls typically sending 100 or more messages a day or more than 3,000 texts a month.
* However, while many teens are avid texters, a substantial minority are not. One-fifth of teen texters (22%) send and receive just one to 10 texts a day or 30 to 300 texts a month.

Calling is still a central function of the cell phone for teens, and for many teens voice is the primary mode of conversing with their parents (surprise, surprise).

CALL STATISTICS
Teens typically make or receive five calls a day. White teens typically make or receive four calls a day, or around 120 calls a month, while black teens exchange seven calls a day or about 210 calls a month and Hispanic teens typically make and receive five calls a day or about 150 calls a month.

TEEN GIRLS SKEW THE RESULTS
Girls more fully embrace most aspects of cell phone-based communication.

As we see with other communicative technologies and applications, girls are more likely than boys to use both text messaging and voice calling and are likely to do each more frequently.

* Girls typically send and receive 80 texts a day; boys send and receive 30.
* 86% of girls text message friends several times a day; 64% of boys do the same.
* 59% of girls call friends on their cell phone every day; 42% of boys call friends daily on their cell phone daily.

Girls are also more likely than boys to text for social reasons, to text privately and to text about school work.

* 59% of girls text several times a day to “just say hello and chat”; 42% of boys do so.
* 84% of girls have long text exchanges on personal matters; 67% of boys have similar exchanges.
* 76% of girls text about school work, while 64% of boys text about school.

PHONE USAGE AT SCHOOL
Most schools treat the phone as a disruptive force that must be managed and often excluded from the school and the classroom.

Even though most schools treat cell phones as something to be contained and regulated, teens are nevertheless still texting frequently in class.

* 12% of all students say they can have their phone at school at any time.
* 62% of all students say they can have their phone in school, just not in class.
* 24% of teens attend schools that ban all cell phones from school grounds.
* Still, 65% of cell-owning teens at schools that completely ban phones bring their phones to school every day.
* 58% of cell-owning teens at schools that ban phones have sent a text message during class.
* 43% of all teens who take their phones to school say they text in class at least once a day or more.
* 64% of teens with cell phones have texted in class; 25% have made or received a call during class time.

TEEN MOBILE INTERNET USAGE
Cell phones help bridge the digital divide by providing internet access to less privileged teens. Still, for some teens, using the internet from their mobile phone is “too expensive.”

Teens from low-income households, particularly African-Americans, are much more likely than other teens to go online using a cell phone. This is a pattern that mirrors Pew Internet Project findings about adults and their cell phones.

* 21% of teens who do not otherwise go online say they access the internet on their cell phone.
* 41% of teens from households earning less than $30,000 annually say they go online with their cell phone. Only 70% of teens in this income category have a computer in the home, compared with 92% of families from households that earn more.
* 44% of black teens and 35% of Hispanic teens use their cell phones to go online, compared with 21% of white teens.

Cell phones are seen as a mixed blessing. Parents and teens say phones make their lives safer and more convenient. Yet both also cite new tensions connected to cell phone use.

HOW TEENS USE THEIR PHONES
Cell phones are not just about calling or texting — with expanding functionality, phones have become multimedia recording devices and pocket-sized internet connected computers. Among teen cell phone owners:

Teens who have multi-purpose phones are avid users of those extra features. The most popular are taking and sharing pictures and playing music:

* 83% use their phones to take pictures.
* 64% share pictures with others.
* 60% play music on their phones.
* 46% play games on their phones.
* 32% exchange videos on their phones.
* 31% exchange instant messages on their phones.
* 27% go online for general purposes on their phones.
* 23% access social network sites on their phones.
* 21% use email on their phones.
* 11% purchase things via their phones.

UNLIMITED PLANS
Unlimited plans are tied to increases in use of the phone, while teens on “metered” plans are much more circumspect in their use of the phone.

Fully three-quarters of teen cell phone users (75%) have unlimited texting. Just 13% of teen cell phone users pay per message. Those with unlimited voice and texting plans are more likely to call others daily or more often for almost every reason we queried — to call and check in with someone, to coordinate meeting, to talk about school work or have long personal conversations. Teens with unlimited texting typically send and receive 70 texts per day, compared with 10 texts a day for teens on limited plans and five texts a day for teens who pay per message.

BOTTOM LINE
The teen segment has always pointed the way to older demographic groups being socially connected vie various channels. Texting patterns only indicate that text is the preferred method to communicate to this group of today’s consumers. They are also driving usage for their parents which will continue to help shape 35-54 year old segment.

READ MORE: Get the full Pew Internet Research Report here.

May 10, 2010 in Blog   |   No Comments

Google Android leads Web & Data Usage in recent Study. Smartphones also will be Majority of Cell Phones By 2011 – according to Nielsen.

Over the last several weeks, new phones have hit the cell phone market and have landed in consumers pocket. The latest was the Google Android “DROID” phone by Motorola. The smart choice for today’s consumers is a amart phone: iPhone, BlackBerry, Droid or other Android-powered device.

What’s most revealing is that the Android phone also outpaces Mobile Web and Data use over the iPhone which has been quickly adopted by consumers looking to use their iPhone Data & Web plan through the use of Apps, Text, MMS and Mobile Web. Here’s how web and data consumption fares among the leading smartphones:

SMARTPHONE FUTURE IS BRIGHT
Nielson projects that the majority of mobile phones by 2011 in the U.S. will be smartphones, with the devices used by half of cell phone subscribers, or 150 million people, by mid-2011.

“This shift could happen much faster with the right conditions such as continued competitive price points on devices, lower ‘all you can eat’ data packages and the increasing consumers who need to be connected anytime, anywhere,” according to a post Wednesday on the Nielsen blog by Jerry Rocha, senior director of the online division.

In just the third quarter of 2009, Nielsen estimates that smartphones accounted for 40% of new phones sold in the period, up from 25% in the prior quarter. And in the third quarter, for the first time, more people accessed the Internet from smartphones than regular phones. “If this trend continues, we’ll see more than 80% of the devices accessing the Internet being these advanced phones,” wrote Rocha.

MOBILE INTERNET via a SmartPhone Device
Assuming that 150 million people will be using smartphones by mid-2011, that means 120 million will be on the mobile Internet and 90 million, or 60%, will be watching video, according to Nielsen projections based on current data trends.

As of the second quarter, Nielsen has previously reported that some 15 million U.S. mobile subscribers watch video on their phones for an average of three hours, 15 minutes each month.

With the launch of the Motorola Droid by Verizon Wireless last week, Nielsen also compared data and Web usage between the iPhone and Android devices. The results were roughly even, with 92% of Android users accessing the Internet compared to 88% of iPhone owners, and 76% of Android customers using applications versus 74% on the iPhone. Given Apple’s 10-to-1 advantage over Android in the number of mobile apps offered, the parity in usage should be welcome news to Google.

MOBILE VIDEO
When it comes to watching video, Android had a clearer edge over the iPhone, at 47% to 40%. But iPhone and Android users separately outstripped smartphone owners overall in Web browsing, video viewing and using apps. The Android phones helps accelerate adoption of the mobile Web and content, especially of popular Google programs like Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Voice.

“The trend in the U.S. is more interaction, more consumption, and more connected devices,” wrote Roche. “While not a competition killer, the Droid is the next logical step in a market with a wide array of rich media devices.”

November 13, 2009 in Blog   |   No Comments