Mobile Web Popularity on the Rise

Tag : mobile phone tool

Analysts Nielsen Mobile mentioned in a recent report that the pasttwo years have seen an exponential growth in the number of peopleaccessing the Internet from their mobile phones.

Leading the pack is the United States owing to the large number ofmobile phone users there. In 2006, while there were 22.4 millionpeople hooked to the Internet through phones, the figure has goneup to 40 million by 2008. That comes to about 16% of all the mobileusers in the US. Nielsen surveyed 16 countries which included theUK and Italy who were placed second and third with 12.9% and 11.9%respectively. Amongst the surveyed countries, Indonesia had thelowest percentage of 1.1% of mobile subscribers using their phonesto access the Internet.
The sudden spurt in growth has to be attributed to the launch ofInternet-friendly devices, the availability of high speed networksand, of course, lowered costs due to better data packages.

Although the growth has been impressive, there is further room forgrowth in this sector as 95 million subscribers who have a dataplan activated in the US, do not actually use the service.

Any new study on mobile connectivity has to include the iPhonefactor as well. According to Nielsen, 82 percent of previousgeneration iPhone users used the Internet facility. This isconsiderably higher than that of any other devices. Among otherhandsets, the Motorola RAZR, is the most popular in the U.S. andNokia's N95 is the most popular in U.K. In India, China and Russiatoo, it is the Nokia handsets which are the most frequently used.

With regard to usage pattern, the most common uses are to executebank transactions, check email and to socialize using varioussocial networking sites. While mobile web generated $5 billion in2007, the first quarter of this year has already generated $1.7billion.
This unprecedented growth is a clear indicator for big businessesto start investing in this as a marketing tool.