Simon van Wyk takes a look at why mobile’s getting exciting.
It’s hard not to get carried away with the freewheeling mobile bandwagon. According to research firm, Informa, the worldwide cell phone market passed 3 billion units in November last year.
Indeed, a staggering 1.12 billion phones were sold around the globe in 2007 with sales forecasts predicting something like 1.2 billion this year. By the end of this decade 70% of the world’s population will carry a mobile phone which would suggest that we are officially entering the mobile age.
But for mobile to fulfil its potential, the barriers which have so far kept a lid on mobile data consumption will need to be removed.
And surfing the web on a mobile device needs to get a lot easier too.
Which is of course the challenge that Apple answered last year with the launch of its Internet-centric iPhone and its touch screen interface. Its mobile browser actually goes a very long way to delivering the Internet in your pocket something resembling the experience of surfing the Internet on a PC by allowing users to zoom in on certain sections of a web page by tapping images and text. It certainly had critics gushing and consumers rushing out to purchase it.
While other phones provide much of its utility, none has been successful in wrapping up all the features into a satisfying user experience that takes the frustration out of browsing on a mobile phone.
Flat data charges
But interestingly, of its many advanced and beautiful features, for consumers I think, removing the fear and uncertainty of data charges is no doubt one of its most endearing qualities. By coupling the iPhone with AT&T’s unlimited data plan, the iPhone neatly removes the biggest hurdle in user consumption. It’s not rocket science to grasp that taking away the nasty data charges means that users are more likely to use the device.
And use it they do.
Hardly surprising then that when M:Metrics, a mobile media measurement firm, recently surveyed 10,000 iPhone users, they saw dramatic increases in mobile web consumption compared to common garden variety mobile phone users.
For instance, 84.8 percent of iPhone users access news and information from their devices compared to 13.1 percent of the overall mobile phone market and 58.2 percent of smartphone owners.
The study also found that 58.6 percent of iPhone users use search on their phone, compared to 37 percent of smartphone users and 6.1 percent of mobile phone users.
iPhone users also watch more video clips and mobile TV as well as listen to a lot more music via iTunes.
It’s not just about the iPhone
But it’s not just about Apple’s iPhone. Flat-rate data plans, enhanced web browsers on mobile phones as well as improved services from companies like Google are fuelling the growth.
Giving consumers a better experience of the mobile web is behind Google’s development of its Android operating system for mobile. At the Mobile World Conference in February there was huge buzz around the prototypes of the Google phone, with the first handsets to run Android expected to go on sale (in other markets) in the second half of this year.
Of course in Australia we’re still waiting for the iPhone. Apple has yet to firm up on a date for the iPhone’s launch on these shores. But that hasn’t stopped a great deal of speculation in the media about the possibility of Telstra winning exclusive rights to sell the phone, fuelled by job ads by Sensis which is looking for people to design cutting-edge search applications for the device.
In a report in The Sydney Morning Herald earlier this month, Danielle Horan, corporate affairs adviser at Sensis said: “In other markets we’ve seen big uplifts in the use of mobile applications by iPhone users and so we are making sure we are well placed to have our applications such as Yellow Mobile, Whereis Mobile, Citysearch Mobile and Sensis Search meet the needs of users.”
Watershed moment
I think what all this shows is that with sophisticated devices, the web in your pocket and consuming its content will undoubtedly take off once the threat of untold data charges have been removed. After all, despite all the compelling mobile content available, mobile phone users (other than iPhone aficionados) continue to ignore it in favour of their love affair with the humble text message.
So to open up the floodgates of consumer consumption of mobile everything on flat data plans we are surely going to see the development of ad-funded business models.
Indeed it has been the lack of web-centric handsets which has held back the market for mobile advertising. However, with phones becoming more sophisticated and mobile network speeds faster, mobile is now seen as the next battle-ground for advertisers.
Senior analyst at Jupiter Research, Thomas Husson predicts that: “The mobile advertising market will grow significantly over the next few years and move from its current trial stage to a more mature business where stakeholders will leverage consumers’ uptake of mobile data service.”
Estimates for the value of the mobile advertising market vary from something like US$2billion - US$13.8 billion by 2011. But what is certain is that this industry is growing, and growing fast.
