According to Marketing magazine today, it’s time to rethink Mobile media. With their first argument being the obvious and somewhat trite “Just because your colleagues have an iphone doesn’t mean your consumers will” before starting to back this up with some interesting stats: 76% of mobile phone users aged over 16 are not accessing the internet via their phone, 10% of users use the internet on their phone daily, 15% once a week – I’ve had a few thoughts on this (the first being that I’ve always wondered just who they’re surveying and how the questions are structured)
My first reservation stems from the fact that there have been a wealth of other surveys which have given figures weighted slightly more heavily toward the web users (Which is probably due to the publisher of said statistics…). Although the market is still incredibly far from saturation one of the assumptions we can make is that those 10% are likely to be engaged with their content daily and in more conversational ways (this being mobile technology). Those using their mobile tech to stay on top of their interests will also be more likely to become the “evangelists” that all the word of mouth agencies are going for (especially for consumer electronics) as they are constantly connected to their subject.
There’s also the side of the argument that 1 million iPhones were sold in the UK by February 2009 (I don’t currently have the stats for 2009 – 2010) – but that’s a lot of phones and that’s just iPhones, there’s also the wealth of other smartphones (Blackberry, Nokia, HTC and increasingly, Google are strong in the market) – while it’s not the majority of the population, that’s still quite a few people. It’s definitely worth taking into account that while they may not be web users, they may have an app for Facebook on their phone (or buy app games etc.). Even non-”smart” phones have the functionality to run apps now so we can assume that the figures for web access might be skewed dependent on means of access.
The most crucial fact to remember is that while Marketing may suggest a rethink, the rethink should focus on the huge increase in the sales of internet ready phones and data packages from phone providers, a growth that isn’t looking likely to slow down. If it’s time for a rethink, it’s because people aren’t utilising what is (and is set to become even more of) an incredibly powerful market.
I wonder if part of the reason more people don’t regularly go online with their phone is due to most sites being a pig to use on them? All too frequently I’m left waiting for an article on a page to appear but, before I can read it, I have to download the 200 X 700 pixel site logo. Over a 2G connection this sucks.
I’d like to see developers giving more consideration to mobile devices. We should be providing for this totally different user experience. This is especially true if, say, I see your ad at the train station. I’ll have forgotten you by the time I get home unless I was able to load your page whilst I waited for my train.
It happens that there is an excellent Railscast on catering for mobile devices in a Ruby on Rails app: http://railscasts.com/episodes/199-mobile-devices
I’d completely agree with you there – a lot of my mobile use on my phone is when commuting/travelling – either to look things up on the spur of the moment or because I’ve seen something that’s piqued my interest (like an ad) – wordpress is an excellent example of a site that still works when viewed on a mobile – I guess that’s the key – the scaleability of a page.
I’ll have to watch the Railcast a little later!
Cheers Adam!