Consumers accessing the internet via their mobile phone are increasing, with 56% of users having browsed the internet or downloaded emails in 2005.
Recent figures from A.T. Kearney revealed users rising affiliation with advanced features on their mobile phone, with a massive 92% of users in Japan going online via their mobiles.
This strong trend is confirmed in a study from Ipsos Insight, with the research finding that 28% of mobile phone owners worldwide had browsed the internet on a wireless handset, up from 25% at the end of 2004.
Commenting on the findings, Brian Cruikshank of Ipsos, said: “Accessing the internet on a wireless handheld device is no longer a novelty for consumers in the major global economies. It’s becoming a common, everyday occurrence for many people.”
Cruikshank continued: “In the long term, many of today’s PC-centric online activities could be complemented through the mobile phone altogether, due to greater convenience and faster connection speeds.”
Internet browsing via a mobile handset is growing on a global basis, with France and the UK leading the way in terms of penetration.
According to Ipsos, 52% of all mobile phone households today have sent or received a text message, and 37% have sent or received email on a mobile phone.
Mobile phones are also increasingly being used to watch television, with recent figures from Magna Global forecasting the number of global 3G subscribers watching video will exceed 500 million by 2009 (see Mobile Phone Advertising To Increase).
Consumers in the UK seem keen to adopt mobile TV technology, with findings from the Oxford Media Trial released earlier this year results from the Oxford Mobile TV trial (see BT Reveals Consumer Interest In Mobile TV) and a similar study from BT both revealing a high level of interest from consumers in a commercial mobile TV service (see UK Consumers Keen For Mobile TV).
In the US, eMarketer projects that 3 million US consumers will watch TV programming on their mobile phones in 2006, up from 1.2 million in 2005. By 2009, the analyst expects there will be 15 million video viewers, an estimated 6.2% of total mobile subscribers (see US Mobile TV Subscriptions To Hit 15 Million By 2009).
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