‘Future of Mobile’ Seminar: Mobile internet v fixed web access
Ian Bramley, senior director at Ipsos MediaCT, took to the stage to discuss the challenges for mobile internet compared to pc-based “fixed web” access at MediaTel Group’s ‘Future of Mobile’ seminar in London yesterday.
Bramley highlighted the key findings of the new Ipsos MediaCT ‘Opportunity for mobile content’ study, which was conducted with a sample of 500 general mobile users aged between 15 to 50 last month.
Mobile internet use over the past three months is far from universal, according to Bramley. While 99% of iPhone users are frequently accessing the internet via their handsets, only 42% of low-end mobile users have logged on via their more basic handsets in the past three months.
Out of those, certain patterns occur – men aged between 25 and 34 are much more likely to access mobile internet, as are customers on the 3 network, as well as users with a contract tariff.
The report found that the barriers stopping people using mobile internet, or preventing them for doing it more often, are that users think internet access is better on a PC, it costs too much, screens are too small and the connection is too slow on a mobile. For some respondents, they don’t even have the internet on their phone for it to be considered an option, and some just don’t feel that they need to.
However, Bramley said on the whole, problems surrounding mobile internet access are “not about apathy”. People want to use it but without the barriers stopping them at the moment.
As such, most web activity remains via fixed internet for mobile users, Bramley explained. However, the gap is fairly small when it comes to certain web activities on the iPhone, including Facebook and music services.
In the last three months, 77% of iPhone users have accessed Facebook via their PC, while 71% have accessed the social networking site via their mobile handset. In terms of browsing, 81% of users have accessed email services on their PC compared to 76% on their mobile, while 79% have browsed news services on fixed web compared to 75% via a mobile phone.
The only mobile web activity to actually rival PC-based web activity is downloading and listening to music. 67% of users have accessed music services via their PCs and mobiles over the past three months, and this trend is set to continue, Bramley said.
In the future, mobile users can see themselves using mobile internet as much as fixed-based web services, according to Ipsos MediaCT. The study shows that if users had a handset with a large colour screen, fast internet access, which is included in their tariff, they would be keen access as much, if not more, on their mobile as they have previously done with PC-based internet services.
As Bramley summarised – mobile internet still lags behind fixed for most users, although iPhone has closed the gap. Location based services hold the broadest appeal for the future. Downloading still has a strong interest, as do free ad-funded models and Rupert Murdoch may be interested to know that subscription models can be compelling but only at the right price.