Mobile web reaches tipping point

The mobile web has gone beyond the tipping point. The phenomena has now become unstoppable and according to a report by analysts Nielsen Mobile, mobile web use is now at critical mass.

With nearly 40 million Americans using their cell phones to browse on the move, the US is the most tech savvy nation. According to Nielsen’s report that’s 16% of Americans who are mobile browsers. The UK, then Italy follow, rating second and third in the 16 countries surveyed for the study.

Lowest on the study? Indonesia with only 1.1% of mobile subscribers who use their handsets for web surfing.

User-friendly handsets, higher speed networks and unlimited data packages are part of the reason for the increasing numbers, Nielsen’s report says.

"The adoption and the experience are improving at an impressive rate," said Nic Covey, Nielsen Mobile's director of insights.

Numbers of mobile surfers jumped dramatically in two years. In the US, the number of people using mobile internet went from 22.4 million in 2006 to more than 40 million today.

Not everyone who has the technology uses it however. The study found that about 95 million Americans pay for mobile web access, but don’t necessarily use it.

"The mobile internet is often included as part of a larger mobile media package," the report said.

"Users may be either unaware or disinterested in the internet access that is provided."

Not everyone is uninformed. Consumers who use handsets like the first generation iPhone are very aware of the mobile web service and use it.

The firm found that 82% of iPhone owners access the mobile internet, "making them five times as likely to do so as the average mobile consumer".

Those numbers are only expected to increase as the second-generation iPhone is released on 11 July. Generation two iPhones will come with 3G, allowing faster access to the web.

As much interest as the iPhone and the Blackberry have generated in the US, the most popular handset, according to the study, still remains the Motorola RAZR. In Europe the handset of choice is Nokia's N95.

Nokia handsets are also the most popular in China, India and Russia.

Although some assume general browsing is popular, the survey found that most people use the web to check email, visit social networks and carry out bank transactions.

With millions of sites to visit the most popular and visited brands and sites among those surveyed were Yahoo and Google.

The popularity of some sites may have translated from a PC to a handset, but the overall browsing habits differed greatly between a PC and the small screen.

"PC internet users visit more than 100 domains per month, on average," the report said.
"By contrast, the average mobile internet user in the US visited 6.4 individual websites per month."

UK use was slightly less at 5.5 per month. Italian users visit 8.2 per month on average, a statistic the study’s authors attribute to the more sophisticated handsets of Italian users.

Growth on this scale means the mobile web is now a viable option for big business, the authors said.

"Mobile internet reached a critical mass this year, offering a large and diverse enough base of users to support large-scale mobile marketing efforts," they said. The only question now is, who will jump in to take advantage of the market potential.