MobileWebsiteWatch

In a press release from comScore today, the boom in the everyday use of mobile web to get things done was confirmed and reinforced. According to the report, in June 2008, more then 20.8 million U.S. mobile subscribers accessed search during the month, an increase of 68% over same month year prior.

“It is interesting to note that as we see the number of mobile search users increase, the frequency of activity is also growing,” observed Alistair Hill, analyst, comScore. “The number of U.S. users accessing mobile search has more than doubled as a result of expanded 3G penetration and smartphone adoption, as well as the proliferation of flat-rate data plans. We have also seen a substantial improvement to the mobile search offerings in the U.S. market.”

As more and more people search for things on thier mobile devices, the more important it becomes to offer a mobile Web site for them to interact with. What good is your store or office if your customers can’t even walk in the door. The expectation of mobile optimized Web sites is now basic for most customers.

Furthermore, customers who arrive at your site via mobile search are likely your best customers. If they search for you on their phone, and then go to your site, this means that they are on the go, away from their computers, and most likly to be seeking specfic information on how to interact with you: such as finding contact information, store locations, buying a ticket or a specific product, or reviewing information about your products and pricing while shopping.

A new study released by research firm Juniper Research reveals that the market for gambling and betting via mobile internet is not only healthy, but growing faster than many other sectors when stacked up year over year.

The study, entitled “Mobile Gambling - a Good Bet for the Future” has highlighted sections on variou areas including casino style games, lotteries and sports betting.

Taking all kinds of mobile gambling service together, Juniper Research estimates that total wager in mobile gambling with total nearly $1.3bn in 2007, rising to more than $26bn in 2012. Gross wager in 2012 includes more than $3.6bn derived from the North American region and primarily in the US, where we are confident that existing legislation will be amended or replaced by 2010 at the latest, and that the increasing use of location-based application will allow state use of various gambling services.

Like any growth market that is this explosive, getting loyal user involved right away and building a presence and market share now will have a big impact on the revenues in two years. 2012 is only 3.5 years away. Those who implement a robust mobile web solution that allows them to take even a few points of market share today strand to see it pay off many many times over when you consider the market ballooning to $3,600,000,000+ in the US alone.

You can’t even get those odds at the tracks!

Mobile tech today notes: The NPD Group said in a report Tuesday that 28 million cell phones were sold in the United States in the second quarter, a decline of 13 percent from the same period a year ago.

One important caveat is that NPD figures were based on online surveys of cell phone buyers, and exclude government and corporate buyers. Figures from another research firm, IDC, indicate that institutional buyers are making up for slackening consumer demand.

Ramon Llamas, IDC’s senior research analyst for mobile phones, said 42.9 million handsets were shipped to the U.S. market in the second quarter, up 6 percent from a year ago. IDC’s figures are based on manufacturer reports.

The average cell phone in NPD’s surveys cost $84, up 14 percent from a year ago, as sales of feature-rich “smart” phones nearly doubled. Cell phones with full-alphabet keyboards, like Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry models, saw the biggest increase. Meanwhile, sales of simpler phones used mainly for calls are falling off, Rubin said.

In a study released this May by design agency AKQA and dotMobi, a lot of illuminating data is brought to light. While the overall tenor of the “study” is slightly muddied by the blatant commercial interests of its sponsors, there are nonetheless, over 2,000 respondents, fairly selected by independent third party research agency, Research Now. The study, which focuses on the US and UK, and is notable for highlighting the similarities and contrasting trends in the two nations, has its data broken down in many many ways. The free PDF download contains over 80 pages, most of which are charts or graphs about niched subject matter surrounding mobile web use. Below are few of the more enlightening points:

• Approximately 90% of the 2,000 respondents are interested in learning about the mobile Web, demonstrating a need for brands to make their mobile properties findable via mobile search, marketing and advertising campaigns.

• 50% of respondents were unaware that there are mobile sites optimized for use on mobile phones and;

• The vast majority - 86% of participants - said they were interested in knowing which sites are easily accessible on a mobile phone.

• Nearly 50% of respondents said that a poor experience on their initial use of the mobile Web made them “reluctant to access” either the site - or the Internet in general - on their mobile phones again.

• Only 2% of participants in the survey who have purchased a phone in the past six months chose an iPhone. This indicates that brands that don’t optimize their mobile services for a variety of mobile phones will provide a substandard mobile Internet experiences for a vast majority of consumers.

• Poor site display and layout remain top reasons for mobile Web dissatisfaction among consumers.

• Almost two-thirds of participants stated that they would consider purchasing theater tickets, take-out food and travel tickets via a mobile phone.

• Finally, 63% of survey respondents said they would be more likely to give up their money than their mobile “smart phone” if they were mugged.

This study really showed a lot of things that are common misconceptions about the size and reach of the mobile internet today. For example, it is commonly though that the only people using the Internet on their phones are teens and young adults and an optimized mobile web experience will appeal most to them alone, yet this study finds that even in the higher age range brackets, the desire to know what is accessible from the user’s phone is remarkably high:

The take-away from survey graph like this is perhaps not immediately clear. While it is easy to see that interest in mobile web accessibility tilts more (although less than one might expect) toward the younger generations, the strong interest in accessing optimized content across all age groups really rives home an underlying, but indisputable and often overlooked fact: mobile users are a much more devoted and committed audience than desktop users.

Mobile users are purposeful internet users. They are not likely to be browsing idly and are by definition: on the go, needing information right away and, expecting to get it on their phone. Furthermore, there numbers are much higher than many think. This study concludes that, already, about 1 in 5 people access the Web on their mobile devices daily. However, if you add in all those who report using the mobile web at least weekly, you’re looking at more than 50% or users who access the internertt on their phones at least once a week!

If you’ve been reading avidly you’ll recall that in our previous post on Neilsen’s mobile web market report, it was revealed that there were 95 million mobile web subscribers in May 2008 in USA. So lets do some quick math here:

OK, so if AT LEAST this many users are browsing on their phones today and want optimized content, how many are your customers? More importantly, how many do you stand to lose to a competitor that does offer a mobile Web site.

Or best of all, how many do you stand to gain at your competitor’s expense by providing an optimized view of your Web site? Couple that with the year over year growth rate of mobile web use and the answers require less than back of the envelope arithmetic to become apparent.

Here are some great graphs for all you folks needing to put together slideshows and things about the mobile web market. Data from CITA shows tremendous growth with complete data though Q4 2007.

2007 Wireless, SMS and Data Plan Snapshot