(a running list…)
I have been collecting snippets of information related to Mobile Marketing and the Wireless Industry in general for a couple of years now and thought it best to share. All of the information below has come from public sources and I have done my best to cite these sources.
Please note that for the most part, the list is in descending order with regards to dates so you’ll have to scroll to the bottom of the page to view the most recent posts. My goal is to update this list on a regular basis - so check back often!
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MOBILE STATS — SCROLL TO BOTTOM TO SEE MOST RECENT
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75% of all U.S. mobile phones are capable of sending SMS - expected 100% by end of 2006 (Source: IDC analyst)
14% of U.S. wireless subscribers use the Web browser on their handsets
(Source: M:Metrics - RCRNews 10/31/05)
LOS ANGELES - Almost 70 percent of all ringtones sales are made by women, according to a new study by mobile media measurement group Telephia.
In the third quarter of this year, women’s ringtone purchases outpaced men’s two to one, with women comprising 69 percent of sales and men 31 percent. Sales include traditional ringtones, master ringtones, ringback tones and voice tones.
Regardless of gender, the age of buyers varied by music genre. The ringtone for “Let Me Hold You” by Bow Wow and Omarion was bought 61 percent by those 18-24, and 33 percent by those 25-34. Yet “Hollaback Girl” by Gwen Stefani was purchased only 40 percent by the 18-24 age bracket, with 51 percent of sales coming from the 25-34 group. (Source: Telephia 11/10/05)
This spring, Yankee Group found about one-third of U.S. consumers had at least tried to download a ringtone; when asked what wireless service they’d spend money on each month if they additional cash, 13-17-year-olds chose ringtones above all else, and ringtones were the #2 choice among those 18-24. (WSJ 11/21/05)
Carriers sell more handsets during Christmas holiday season than any other time during the year (RCRNews)
12% of all U.S Wireless subscribers are on Pre-Paid plans (RCRNews)
6.8% of U.S. Carriers Revenue is from Data Services - expected to grow to 15% by 2009 (SPRINT has highest data revs - 11% of its total rev)
Cingular has 52.3 million subs -30M have data enabled handsets(11/7/2005)
Verizon has 49.3 subs (11/7/2005)
SprintNextel -
NA - Boost has 1.7M
TMO - 20.3 subs (11/14/2005)
Alltel - 10.4
CANADA SUBCRIBERS!!!
SOURCE CWTA — approx 16M+ wireless subs in Canada (Rogers close to 6M subs) - penentration rate of close to 60% (pop of 32Canadians)
Market Share
———————–
Motorola - 34.4%
LG - 20.1%
Samsung 16.8
Nokia 14.5
Kyocera 3.8
Sanyo 3.3
Audiovox/UStarcom 3.0
Sony Ericsson 2.0
Siemens 1.1
Others 1.1
(Source: 3Q - 2005 - Strategy Analytics)
TOP 5 Handsets in U.S. Q3 - NPD Group
Moto - Razr V3
Moto - V180
Moto - V551
Nokia - 6010
LG - VX6100
“Drop-off rates of 50% per click (on the handset) are not uncommon” - Mike Baker CEO Enpocket - RCRNews 10/31/05
Nearly Half of 10-18 yr olds use cell phones and nearly one third of them are subscribers to VERIZON Wireless according to study by Gfk NOP Technology.
The firm’s 1st annual mKids study found that U.S. teens and tweens represent a total market value of $10.7 Billion. Verizon leads carriers with 30% share of this market - Cingular 27%
THIS STUDY CONTRASTS SLIGHTLY with M:Metrics study in July 2005 that found Sprint/Nextel and T-Mobile to be the carriers of choice for older teens and young adults - the heaviest users of mobile content. (RCRNEW - 10/31/05)
If you want to know where mobile technology is going, watch these two groups of early adopters,” said Kaan Yigit, Study Director. “Similar to their culture - leading impact on music, entertainment and sports, African American and Hispanic consumers are leading the charge in mobile technology as cellular phones morph into all-in-one personal portals for entertainment and communication.”
Among the key findings of the research are:
- 52 percent of Hispanics and 48 percent of African American cell phone owners text messaged in the past month, much higher than the overall average of 29 percent.
- African Americans are more likely to download ringtones: 37 percent of African American cellular owners downloaded a ringtone in the past, followed by Hispanics (28 percent) versus an overall average of 26 percent.
- While Verizon and Cingular are the leading wireless carriers nationally overall, the leading wireless provider - by a significant margin - for African Americans and Hispanics is Sprint. (Toronto -based Solutions Research Group - telephone survey June 2005)
JUPITER RESEARCH:
In 2004, 99 percent of the installed base of cell phones was SMS-capable handsets,
and JupiterResearch believes that number will reach 100 percent in 2005. MMS-capable
handsets have much lower penetration; only 25 percent of handsets were MMS-capable in
2004, and the number will grow to 72 percent of the installed base in 2009. MMS
penetration will not be limited by audio functionality, but rather by video and camera
functionality. While only 12 percent of handsets are capable of music/voice recording and
playback in 2004, 100 percent will be capable of it by 2009. However, consumer priorities
for data- and voice-centric devices, combined with limited carrier interoperability and a
lack of standards for MMS (i.e., messages can only be properly delivered in-network) will
dampen demand for MMS-capable phones in the near term. While nearly all cell phone
users have SMS-capable phones, only 38 percent have sent SMS messages, and only six
percent have sent MMS messages. In theory, the addressable market for advertisers
and content providers who want to reach consumers via text messaging is large, but in
practice it is much smaller due to a lack of consumer familiarity and interest in using the
service in the near term.
FORRESTER RESEARCH MARCH 2005:
Carriers have widely varying phone populations. A mixture of growth, churn, and carrier
initiatives has yielded a mixed distribution of phone ages among carriers. Among major carriers,
T-Mobile’s subscribers have the newest phones, driven by the operator’s staggering 51% growth
rate in the past six quarters. Cingular’s retention efforts in the face of its acquisition of AT&T,
along with its drive to convert TDMA subscribers to GSM, give it the largest number of phones
less than six months old. And Verizon’s policy that rewards subscribers with a new phone every
two years has resonated with its customers, minimizing the percentage of phones two to three
years old.
PREPAID WIRELESS INCREASES ITS SHARE - Forrester 3/2005
Since the launch of Virgin and Boost, prepaid is no longer something consumers won’t admit to
having.
· Prepaid users have doubled in the past two years. The last time we asked consumers about
how they pay for their wireless service, 5% said they bought their minutes in advance.9 In
2004, this number grew to almost 11% (see Figure 7-1). Most users “top up” their minutes by
purchasing prepaid calling cards, although a quarter of these subscribers now rely on credit
cards (see Figure 7-2). Surprisingly, those who combine prepaid and postpaid wireless are less
likely to rely on credit cards.
The US is entirely different (far right on
the chart) at close to 90% postpaid,
indicating that well over half of the
entire population has already signed a
contract (90% times 67% penetration). (MORGAN STANLEY REPORT - 1/9/06)
About 47% of cellphones sold in the U.S. in 2005 are camera phones,
compared with 6% in 2003 and 21% in 2004, according to technology-research company
Gartner Inc. About 11 million wireless customers, or 6% of total, actively use
\picture-messaging services, according to another technology-research company,
Yankee Group. Yankee estimates one million people at the end of 2005 were
subscribers to TV services on their cellphones.
MobiTV has recruited more than 500,000 subscribers since launching its service in
\November 2003. Subscriptions to MobiTV cost $10 a month.
IDC STUDY
Motorola (NYSE: MOT) achieved a robust 18 percent global market share during the fourth quarter of 2005, with almost one in three of its total sales being the Razr V3 model.
The USA based CDMA network operator, Sprint says that the Sprint Music Store has become the first mobile download service to announce another industry milestone - one million songs have been downloaded by customers since the Sprint Music Store first launched on Oct. 24, 2005.
(CELLULAR NEWS - 2/16/2006)
American carriers have not released separate figures for 3G cell subscribers.
But industry analysts say there may be fewer than five million 3G phones in use,
or less than 3 percent of the market, and only two million of those are connected to a
3G data plan
(NY TIMES - 2/20/06)
3G handsets now account for roughly 16% of the U.S. mobile landscape (RCR News - CIBC WOrld Markets - 2/13/06) - 12 out of the 76 handsets sold in U.S. (the big Carriers) support the high-speed data networks - all CDMA 2000 1x EV-DO SPRINT & VZW
Ron Garriques, who heads up Motorola’s mobile devices division, Garriques continued to tout the strength of the Razr, which will become its most wide-selling cellphone in the second quarter with 50 million units sold. The company, however, has had recent snags with its flagship phone.
Two phones that have come out of the Razr family are the Slvr and Pebl. The Slvr is selling at a faster pace than the Razr was at the same point, Garriques said. He added the Pebl, which has been selling at a slower pace than the Razr as a result of supply constraints, will come in new colors.
Table 1: Top Mobile Phone Models in Europe - TELEPHIA REPORT 3/29/06
Pan Europe Pan Europe
Share (%) Share (%)
Handset Model Q1 2006(a) Q3 2005(a)
1. Motorola RAZR series (V3, V3x) 6.2% 3.1%
2. Nokia 6230 (6230, 6230i) 3.4% 5.2%
3. Nokia 6101 2.6% 0.3%
4. Samsung SGH-D600 2.2% NA
5. Sony Ericsson K750 series (K750, K750i) 2.0% 2.2%
6. Nokia 6630 2.0% 2.3%
7. Nokia N70 1.9% NA
8. Nokia 6680 series (6680, 6681) 1.7% 1.3%
MERRILL LYNCH - Cellular News 3/30/06
During their first quarter store checks, at Cingular, ML says that they think the top sellers were the Motorola RAZR V3 (Silver, Black and Pink), Sony Ericsson Z520a, Motorola SLVR, Nokia 6102 and the LG C2000. Cingular also launched its first 3G phones, the LG CU320 and the Samsung ZX10 in the upgraded markets.
At Sprint, the top seller was the Samsung a900, aka “The Blade.” Other popular choices were the Samsung a920, the LG PM-225, Sanyo PM-8300 and the Samsung a840.
At T-Mobile USA, the top seller was the Motorola RAZR V3 (Silver and Pink). The Motorola PEBL, Samsung t309, Samsung e365 and the Nokia 6101 are also popular selections.
At Verizon Wireless, they conclude that the top seller was the Motorola RAZR V3c (Grey and Pink). Other popular choices were the Motorola e815, LG 8100, Samsung a850, LG 5200 and the Samsung a850.
Samsung Electronics and Motorola defied the normal seasonal slowdown in mobile-phone
unit production in the first quarter, allowing them to significantly boost their market share,
according to iSuppli Corp. Worldwide mobile-phone production in the first quarter amounted to
220 million units, down 9.5% from 243 million units in the fourth quarter of 2005, according
to the research firm. Mobile-phone shipments typically decelerate in the first quarter
following the holiday selling season in the fourth quarter. (iSuppli 5/4 - Cellular News)
Wirefly and its affiliates reported record online sales across cell phones from all providers. According to Wirefly, the Top 10 hottest phones for Winter and Spring 2006 are:
Motorola RAZR (Silver)
Motorola RAZR (Black)
Motorola V360 Video Phone
Sony Ericsson Z520a Video Phone
Motorola V276 Camera Phone
Sony Ericsson W600 Walkman Phone
Motorola ROKR
Samsung T309
Nokia 6101 Camera Phone
Motorola RAZR (Pink)
Ownership of video-enabled phones doubled in 2005 - 40% of Britons now own a handset that
can make videos, according to JD Power and Associates 2006 UK Mobile Telephone Customer
Satisfaction Study.
US equipment manufacturer Motorola is dominating the Latin American mobile handset market with a
34% share at the end of 1Q06, according to international consultancy RNCOS.
Stratton said that although Verizon has 27.1 million active data users, which accounts for
over 50 percent of its base, the company is concerned that its download growth may be slowing.
M:Metrics data from March 2006 indicates that Verizon’s downloads accounted for 31 percent of
the total U.S. mobile downloads. (John Stratton, Verizon Wireless vice president and chief
marketing officer)
http://www.wirelessweek.com/article/CA6340582.html
Average revenue per user (ARPU) and a much higher-margin service than voice,
Emmet said. For instance, Cingular last quarter reported a 42% increase in data ARPU in
just 12 months, coming in at 10.7% of all revenues. Similarly, Verizon Wireless reported
11.5% of all revenues came from data. Most U.S. carriers have either already broached the
10% mark for data ARPU or are nearly there. (5/8/06 Telephony Magazine)
Almost one in four cellphone users 18 to 24 years old have bought a ring tone in the last
six months, and the percentage is even higher for younger teenagers, says Jupiter Research,
a technology market research company in New York. But only 9 percent of cellphone users 35
to 44 have done so, and only 2 percent of those over 55 have bought a ring tone.
(SOURCE:
NYTIMES 5/3/2006)
China there are approximately five million new mobile-phone subscribers every month on top
of an existing subscriber base of about 400 million. In India, four million to five million
subscribers are being added monthly on top of the existing 100 million subscribers, he said.
The mobile Internet is growing, with over 34.6 million mobile users in June.
That’s according to the “U.S. Device Census Report for Q2 2006″ from Telephia.
Of the 34.6 million mobile Web users, 6.5 million went to Yahoo Mail, a 3 percent reach of subscribers.
The Weather Channel was accessed by 5.8 million (2.7 percent reach); ESPN received 5.3 million unique hits (2.5 percent reach); Google Search served 4.4 million unique visitors (2 percent reach); and MSN Hotmail got 3.4 million visitors (1.6 percent reach).
Other top sites serving the mobile audience include MapQuest with 3.1 million uniques and 1.4 percent reach;
AOL Mail with 2.9 million uniques and 1.4 percent reach; CNN with 2.8 million uniques and 1.3 percent reach;
Yahoo Weather with 2.7 million uniques and 1.3 percent reach; and Yahoo Search with 2.5 million uniques and
1.2 percent reach.
“Mobile Web usage has continued to grow over the past year, as Internet content providers continue to
extend their reach into the mobile space,” Bernard Brenner, director of mobile content at Telephia,
said in a statement.
While several mobile Web browsers exist, Openwave is the dominant software for wireless users.
It retains a 27 percent market share. Motorola’s browser holds a 24 percent market share; Nokia
offers a browser which maintains a 13 percent market share. Additional browsers grab up the remaining
34 percent of the handset market. The browsers include Access NetFront (9 percent); Teleca AU (6 percent);
Sony Ericsson (5 percent); RIM (5 percent); Blazer (4 percent); Samsung (3 percent); Microsoft (3 percent);
and Danger (2 percent).
Enhanced Internet browsing through xHTML-MP is enabled on 81% of handsets with browsers.
The enhanced experience allows for an experience closer to a PC browsing experience.
WSJ - 8/16
The average price for a four- to eight-week-long banner ad campaign on a content provider’s wireless Web site
is now $75,000 to $150,000, up from $25,000 to $50,000 last year. About 3% to 5% of phone users click on banner ads
on their screens — higher than the 1% click rate of computer users, says Jeff Janer, chief operating officer of
Third Screen Media.
BusinessWeek - online - 8/20/06
Mobile-phone makers are increasingly having to take cues from peers in the fashion industry.
In mid-2005, the average person bought a new cell phone every 18 months. But by May of this year,
the cycle had shortened to 17.6 months, according to a J.D. Power & Associates survey of 18,740 consumers
Linda Barrabee, an analyst at the Yankee Group, said that “In 2005, she said,
off-deck revenue represented only about 20 percent of the market. By the end of this year,
she expects it to grow to 25 percent and over the next few years to 40 percent.”
In the U.S., only about 7 million subscribers use 3G services out of a total of about
207.9 million wireless subscribers, according to data from wireless consultant Sharma.
9/2006 Moconews article
Moderator Linda Barrabee from the Yankee Group had some interesting stats to share:
The carrier share of online content purchases:
46% cingular
11% Sprint
26% T-Mobile
17% Verizon
10/9/2006 RCR Wireless News
Of particular note is the shifting demographic profile for active mobile content consumers.
The number of females consuming ringtones and games grew by 27 percent and 21 percent, respectively, year over year.
Corresponding numbers for males were growth of 15.4 percent in males downloading ringtones and a decline of
11.3 percent in the number of males downloading games. Females now account for a clear majority, or 55 percent,
of ringtone purchasers. While males still have a higher propensity to download games, the ratio of male to
female game downloaders has dropped from 61 percent male in 2005 to 54 percent male in 2006.
10/10/06 TELEPHIA Report: 8M take videos with mobile phones
Telephia reported today that about 8 million U.S. mobile subscribers use their mobile phones to take videos,
representing a 3% adoption rate of U.S. subs for the mobile video capability. The trend is greater in Europe,
where rates of 14-15 percent are common. Motorola’s RAZR is the most use handset for capturing video here
in the States.
Motorola RAZR is the Most Popular Handset for Capturing Videos;
Spaniards and Italians Outpace Americans by a Five to One Margin in Using Their Phones to Take Videos
Table 1: Top Device Among Recent Handset Buyers Who Capture Videos (U.S.)
Device Share %
1. RAZR V3 series (V3, V3c, V3m, V3i) 21%
2. Nokia 6101 series (6101,6102) 6%
3. Motorola E815 series 3%
4. Sony Ericsson Z525 3%
5. LG VX8100 series 3%
Source: Observed rankings from the Telephia U.S. Device Report (Q2 2006)
– Note: Data is based on mobile subscribers who recently purchased a new device during the last six months
Europeans Have Higher Adoption Rates for Video Capture on their Mobile Phones
While more and more U.S. mobile consumers use their phones to capture videos, they still lag behind Europeans.
Among the six European countries Telephia measures, Italy and Spain secured the highest adoption rates at 15 and
14 percent, respectively (see Table 2). The U.K. and Sweden also posted double-digit penetration,
while both France and Germany secured a nine percent penetration rate.
Table 2: Adoption Rate for Mobile Phone Video Capture (Europe, U.S. and Canada)
Country Share %
Spain 15%
Italy 14%
UK 12%
Sweden 10%
France 9%
Germany 9%
Canada 4%
US 3%
Source: Observed share from Telephia European Subscriber and Device Report and U.S. Device Report (Q2 and Q3 2006)
QPASS PRESS RELEASE 10/16/06
Ringtones remain the largest sales category, with games at 19 percent and graphics at 12 percent.
Finally, off-portal sales continue to rise–from 1 percent of total sales in 2004 to 32 percent so far this year. Amdocs estimates it will reach 40 percent by the end of the year.
Keep in mind these figures only apply to the sales that take place using the Qpass platform
and are not representative of total market statistics.
10/20/06
CINGULAR REPORTS: Cingular reported 28 million active data customers in the third quarter and said
it delivered 10 billion text messages and 138 million multimedia messages in the period. Cingular,
now with 58.7 million subscribers, says its average revenue per user (ARPU) for data has jumped 46%
from the same quarter last year. Data ARPU is now $6.32 and financial analysts note that it is mostly
coming from the carrier’s 2G network.
10/23/06 - CELLULAR NEWS - ANALYSYS
Non-voice services will account, on average, for 13.3% of total service revenues for US mobile operators in 2006 and this is set to grow to 24.5% by 2011, according to a new report published by Analysys.
The biggest driver of this growth is entertainment services, although messaging is also a major contributor.
US mobile operators’ revenues from mobile entertainment services are expected to total US$5.2 billion in 2006, growing to over US$7 billion in 2007.
10/24/06 - Press release
Analyst group TNS Global Technologies says consumers worldwide aren’t grasping the benefits of
3G networks and devices. In the U.S., for instance, 16% of subscribers own a 3G phone,
but only 10% of those users actually use the 3G functionality. Looking globally,
20% of the world’s mobile phone users own a 3G phone, but only 9% of that base
use the enhanced service.
While U.S. consumers ask for features like cameraphones, mobile Internet access e-mail and
games when making their phone purchase decisions, TNS says they don’t understand that 3G phones
offer more advanced versions of these capabilities.
NJ STAR LEDGER - 11/12/06
And in another sign of data’s growing significance, Verizon reported nearly 31million of its 56.7million
subscribers are using non-voice services, up 43percent from a year earlier. Overall, data revenue accounted
for 14.1percent of the quarter’s revenue from services, up from 8.4percent a year earlier.
OPERA BROWSER STATS - 11/14/06
Chief Operating Officer Jon S. von Tetzchner said last week.” The mobile browser has notched 7 million
downloads since its October 2005 launch.
This paragraph is also interesting: “But while Opera has yet to ink a deal with an American carrier,
Tetzchner said the United States ranks in the top four markets in terms of Mini downloads.
That uptake is remarkable, given the fact that Mini users must seek out the application and
download it on their own instead of simply thumbing through carrier decks.”
MOBILE PORN AT VODAFONE EUROPE - 10/1/2006
Indeed, Graeme Ferguson, former director global content development for Vodafone Group,
recently claimed that 70% of the carrier’s downloads consisted of adult content
12/5/2006 Consumer Reports - RCR Wireless Story
According to Consumer Reports’ subscribers, Verizon Wireless’ top three phones were the
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. SCH-a930 ($165), the LG Electronics Co. Ltd. VX8300 ($75) and the carrier’s
own CDM 8945 ($50). Sprint Nextel’s top three phones included Samsung’s MM-A800 ($30), Sprint Nextel’s own CDM-120 (free) and Samsung’s A920 ($150). The top three GSM phones available at Cingular include the
Motorola Inc. Slvr L7 ($153), the Pantech C300 ($50) and the LG C2000 (free). At T-Mobile USA,
the top three include the Motorola V195 ($30), the Motorola V360 (free) and the Nokia 6101 (free).
Europeans Turn Off Mobile TV
February 12, 2007
NEWS@2 DIRECT
According to a new survey, early adopters of mobile TV and video services in Europe are
abandoning the technology, citing pricing, quality and reliability as major issues.
M:Metrics spoke to roughly 22,000 European mobile users and the results were not good
news for the companies that have invested money on creating the mobile video ecosystem.
Price was a deciding factor for 45% of users, who eventually discontinued the service.
Another 25% stopped using mobile TV and video service because service quality and
reliability weren’t what was expected. And probably worse, the number of former mobile
TV customers outnumbered the existing mobile TV customers by 19%.
“Pricing has already been highlighted as a stumbling block for recurrent use of mobile
video and TV services, but we were surprised by just how much value users place on quality
and reliability,” said Paul Goode, senior analyst, M:Metrics. “Once the basic requirements
of quality and reliability are good enough, the focus will rightly shift to issues of
programming, brands and marketing in addition to price. This research highlights the
need to address quality and reliability so the industry can retain viewers, which is a
key part of growing audience numbers.”
FORBES : 2/20/07 - Interesting bit on Cingular Subs…
“But only Cingular subscribers are allowed to vote via text message. While Cingular is the
largest U.S. wireless carrier, with some 61 million subscribers, 72% of cellphone users
use other carriers — often under 2-year contracts — and can’t vote for Idol by text
message. Some observers also wonder if partnering exclusively with Cingular has influenced
the show’s results. According to NPD Group, 44% of Cingular subscribers are in the South.
All five former Idol winners hail from below the Mason-Dixon line.”
Interesting Mobile Video quote from 3rd Screen CMO… 3/12/2007
“The fact of the matter is that there’s just not a big enough market where an
advertiser is interested in advertising in anything other than the mobile Internet,”
Jeff Janer said. “There are somewhere around 30 million users (on the wireless Web). With
video, you’re talking about numbers in the 5 million range.”
CNET News.com - 3/13/2007 - Mobile Operating Systems aplenty
Most mobile phone manufacturers use internally developed software to run their simpler
phones. But smart phones, high-end devices that have access to the Internet and send e-mail,
run on operating systems created by other companies. Brannan said that in the future,
only the most basic phones would run on operating systems developed by the phone makers.
Last year, two-thirds of smart phones sold ran on Symbian’s operating system, an increase
of about four percentage points from 2005, according to Canalys, a consultant and market
research firm based near London. Microsoft was second last year with a 14 percent market
share, slightly less than the year before, followed by Research in Motion, which makes the
BlackBerry, with 7 percent, and Linux, with 6 percent, according to Canalys.
WSJ - 3/21/07 - Declining Music Sales
It hasn’t worked out that way — at least so far (refers to digital retail stores like iTunes).
Digital sales of individual songs this year have risen 54% from a year earlier to 173.4
million, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
But that’s nowhere near enough to offset the 20% decline from a year ago in CD sales to
81.5 million units. Overall, sales of all music — digital and physical –
are down 10% this year. And even including sales of ringtones, subscription services
and other “ancillary” goods, sales are still down 9%, according to one estimate;
some recording executives have privately questioned that figure, which was included
in a recent report by Pali Research.
Meanwhile, 1 BILLION SONGS A MONTH are traded on illegal file-sharing networks,
according to BigChampagne LLC.
LBS on mobile phones -Telematics Research Group - 4/2007
By 2011 nearly 17 million consumers will
subscribe to off-board navigation to their cell phones in the U.S. while
in Europe this number is close to 23 million.
Sideloading of Music To Mobiles - MMETRICS 3/2007
Sideloading — transferring music from a computer to a mobile device — is the
universally preferred source of music on mobile phones by a wide margin, compared to
downloading music from carrier music stores in any of the markets M:Metrics measures.
The percentage of total subscribers who sideloaded music onto their phones ranges from a
high of 12.2 percent in the UK to 10 percent in Italy, 8.8 percent in Spain, 8.4 percent
in Germany, 4.4 percent in France and 2.9 percent in the United States.
Mobile Music Consumption Comparison: January 2007
————————————————————————–
% of mobile
subscribers US UK DE FR ES IT
————————————————————————–
Listened to
sideloaded music 2.9% 12.2% 8.4% 4.4% 8.8% 10.0%
Downloaded new
songs from carrier
music store 0.7% 2.7% 0.5% 0.5% 2.4% 1.3%
“There has been consumer experimentation with over-the-air, full-track downloads, but
downloading music from carrier music stores has yet to make a significant impact,”
observed Wu. “The two main barriers to greater adoption of over-the-air music services
– accessibility and fair value — are lesser issues with sideloaded music.
The prevalence of sideloading, largely shaped by current usage and understanding of
digital music players, shows that the perceived value in musicphones is still in the
ability to make one’s personal music collection portable, as opposed to a new acquisition
point for music.”
Cameraphones Pass 50% Penetration Mark in USA - 4/18/2007
——————————————
M:Metrics says that the number of cameraphone owners has climbed to 106 million in the
United States, crossing the 50% threshold. Cameraphones are even more ubiquitous in
European markets, led by the United Kingdom where three out of every four mobile
subscribers own a camera phone. The measurement firm reports that the proliferation
of this technology is driving a decline of one of the first sources of mobile
entertainment revenue: the sale of wallpapers and phone graphics, as increasing
numbers of people personalize their phone with photos taken on the device.
Cameraphone Penetration and Graphics Purchases: February 2007
Country Penetration % Who Purchased Screensaver or Wallpaper % Who Saved Camera phone Photo as Screensaver / Wallpaper
US 51% 3.3 16.7
UK 75% 2.0 28.3
Germany 70% 2.0 20.4
France 63% 2.1 26.6
Spain 74% 2.6 31.2
Italy 69% 2.9 31.7
OPERA MINI - Mobile Browser - IDG report - 4/2007
——-
Opera Mini has become a popular browser to search the Web on mobile devices,
particularly in Europe. According to the company, the browser is most popular in Russia,
the Ukraine, the U.S., South Africa and China, and has about 13 million users worldwide.
ATT/Cingular - Q1 Results 2007
————-
62.2 million subscribers
33 million+ active data users in the first quarter (just over half of its total mobile customers)
VZW - Q4 2006 results
——-
The company had 34.3 million retail data customers in December –
a 44 percent increase over fourth quarter 2005.
CTIA reports Pre-Paid Subs
——
Approximately 9% of all reported wireless subscribers are prepaid. (assume end of 2006)
SOCIAL NETWORKING USAGE - TELEPHIA
————————
Only 4% of U.K. mobile users and 6% of U.S. mobile users have uploaded content to social network sites
(including sharing sites or blogs) from their phones, according to Telephia. That’s just uploading mobile
content, and doesn’t include any of the other mobile social network features from the mobile web, or an
application. And with MySpace mobile leading the way in these small markets, with 32% of U.S. mobile upload
traffic and 21% in the U.K, what do you do if you’re a small startup with a little-known mobile social network?
Opera Mini Installed in 15 Million Handsets - (Cellular News.com 5/16/07)
———————————————
Usage of Opera Mini, a Java based Web browser for mobile phones, continues to grow worldwide.
With more than 15 million cumulative users, Opera Mini claims to be the most popular downloadable
Java software for mobile phones.
NPD Group Q1 Handset Market Share - U.S. Market
———————————-
NPD’s top five for first-quarter 2007 are: Motorola (35%), Samsung (17%), LG (15%), Nokia (10%) and Sanyo (4%).
MObile Phone Penetration - U.S. Market - Mobile World Briefing - MAY 2007
——————————————————
The US mobile market in Q1 2007 continued its slow trudge towards 100% penetration, with the best part of
two percentage points added in the quarter, to take the total to 79.6%. In absolute terms, there are now an
(estimated) 239m mobile customers in the USA, up from 233m at the end of 2006 and 214m one year earlier.
The market is now dominated by three operators, AT&T, Verizon and Sprint Nextel. Together, these three have 176m customers out of this total, or nearly three quarters of the total. If the fourth placed T-Mobile is
added to this group, the aggregate rises to 202m, or 85%.
The rest of the market is shared by literally hundreds of smaller regional companies, the largest of which
are Alltel Wireless, with over 12m customers and USC, which is just shy of 6m. This explains the fact that
the US market total will only ever be an estimate - hard data is just not available from the vast majority
of the tiny operators which together share around 3% of the national total.
Five Percent Of Americans Sideload Music, Two Percent Download OTA: Report
————————————-
By James Quintana Pearce - Fri 06 Jul 2007 09:36 AM PST
A new report by JupiterResearch is being quoted around the place as indicating that people don’t want
music capabilities in their mobile phones. “Only about 5 percent of US consumers transfer music from
PCs to their phones, and only 2 percent download songs over the air, according to JupiterResearch’s
“Mobile Music: Target Impulse Purchases and Purchasers for Over-the-Air Downloads” report…\
So although nearly 28 million US consumers will have music phones by the end of 2007, few will
use them very much for music” reports eMarketer, and the post matches the release from Jupiter.
The problem with the figures is that 29 million music phones represents about 10-15 percent of mobile phone
users in the US, so “5 percent” represents between a third and a half of all those with music-capable phones
using the service, which puts a very positive spin on the figures. JupiterResearch has yet to respond to an
e-mail requesting clarification, but I think the way I’ve read it is correct, considering this M:Metrics
report a few months ago which put the percentage of US subscribers listening to sideloaded music at
2.9 percent and the penetration of musicphones at 17 percent. So these JupiterResearch figures are
actually more positive, showing growth…
CDMA Takes 50% North American Market Share - The Mobile World Briefing -
——————————–
The importance of CDMA to the North American market continued to increase in Q1 2007,
with customers using the technology accounting for more than 50% of the total customer
base for the first time by the end of the period. During the first quarter, the number of
CDMA customers increased 3.9% to 129.5m taking the technology’s overall proportionate contribution
from 49.5% to 50.3%. The proportion of the total for which GSM accounts has also been increasing consistently, but not as quickly, the gain amounting to only 0.2pp in Q1 2007, and 2pp in the year ending 31st March 2007.
At the end of Q1 2007 GSM customers made up 38.5% of the North American total. Including the continent’s
nascent W-CDMA networks operated by AT&T in the United States and Rogers in Canada, this proportion rise to 38.8%, up 2.3pp in the year. CDMA2000 remains the overwhelmingly dominant 3G technology in North America, with all but 5.4m of the CDMA base using the more modern variant at the end of Q1 2007. Of the 124m customers using CDMA2000 technology, just over 30m were EV-DO enabled.
Mobile subscriber update: 3 Billion mark hit in July says Informa - Wireless Watch.com
Posted by Tomi Ahonen on July 23rd, 2007 - 2:07 am
This number came a bit earlier than I expected this year. We’ve already passed the 3 billionth mobile phone
subscriber level. The timing is beginning of July 2007, according to Informa. This is up from 2.7 B at start
of year.
Please remember, that does not mean the world has 3 billion mobile phone owners. Only 3 billion subscriptions. One in four mobile phone owners has two or more subscriptions, even in America the multiple subscription rate is already at 15%. So Informa also tells us that the total mobile phone user base is 2.3 billion (up from 2.1 B at start of year)
Still, the 3 billion mobile phone subscriptions means there are more than twice as many mobile phone
subscrptions as TV owners and credit card users. And of the unique mobile phones users of 2.3 billion,
it is almost twice as many as have access to the internet.
We’re looking at a monster size industry indeed. IDC reports that last year 2006 we did reach 1.02
Billion mobile phones sold worldwide (some other sources say we were a few million short).
Informa says the mobile telecoms services industry was worth 646 B dollars last year, of which 111 B was
data and the vast majority was voice revenues. Of data, 80 B was text messaging revenue and 31 B was
value-add services.
This year we’ll hit about 3.2 B mobile phone subscriptions and be over 2.4 B unique mobile phone owners,
and the messaging revenues will hit about 105 B dollars and non-messaging data will pass 50 B dollars.
MObile Video - Telephia July 5th
————
U.S. mobile TV and video revenue reached a total of $146 million in the first quarter of 2007,
up 198% from the first three months of 2006. Approximately 8.4-million Americans now subscribe to
some form of mobile video service, representing almost 4% of U.S. wireless customers.
VZW - Q2 2007 Results.
———-
the carrier boasted 39.5 million retail data customers in June. (Approx 63% of total subs)
Verizon Wireless now boasts 62.1 million total customers
Hispanics Love Mobiles - RCR Wireless 8/20/07
———
Hispanics are now the fastest-growing and youngest-skewing U.S. mobile segment,
with a higher average revenue per user (ARPU) than any other demographic group,
according to the latest Telephia research.
NOkia games on S60 devices - August 22 - 2007
———–
Diarmuid Feeny, Nokia’s Games Business Manager - Feeny revealed that 54% of S60 users do play mobile games, but 85% of those people only play games that come pre-installed on the phone.
He also stated that 50% of phone users in general are willing to buy games, but less than 5% ever do,
and only 2.5% do it more than once. It appears that most potential gamers currently find buying mobile games difficult and unsatisfactory.
Q2 2007 U.S. Handset Sales Stats - NPD Group
—————–
handsetsales with 62% of sales, with mass merchandisers and department stores following at 9% and electronics specialty stores trailing at 5%. Twenty-eight percent of US cell phone “purchases” were actually free, due to special rebates and promotions, while another 28% were bought for less than $50.
Only 11% of phones purchased in Q2 cost more than $150 with 4% costing more than $250.
Motorola in first place accounting for 32%
of the market, followed by Samsung with
18%, LG with 17%, Nokia with 10% and
Sanyo with 4% market share.
Most of the popular mobile device features
were also noticeably more common.
Almost 70% of phones sold were Bluetoothenabled,
accounting for an increase of 9%
since Q1. Some 45% of new phones were
able to play music, up 11%. Additionally,
11% were smartphones, up 32%. Newer
mobile phones sold containing higher-resolution
cameras increased to 5%, up 68%.
Mobile Calls made in the house - WSJ Online by Daniel THomas 9/6/20-7
——————————-
In Europe, 30% to 40% of mobile-phone calls are made from within the home,
and in the U.S. this figure is as high as 60%, according to London-based research firm Ovum.
Virgin USA - Mobile Advertising results - SanFran Chronocile 9/10/2007
————-
Scott Kelliher, director of the mobile advertising group at Virgin Mobile,
said 425,000 of Virgin’s 4.8 million subscribers have used this setup to get free minutes.
And the rate at which consumers click through to connect to a sponsor is 5.5 percent,
he said, much higher than traditional Web ads.
SMS Text Messaging in U.S. - Forrester Research from NYTimes 4/2007
———————-
About 35 percent of cellphone users (85Million or so) send or receive text messages, according to Forrester Research, Text-messaging is even more popular among young people, with 76 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds using it.
Report: North America now leads on data ARPU - Fierce Wireless 10/24/07
————————————————————
North American subscribers now generate the highest monthly ARPU from mobile data services worldwide,rising to $8.90 in the second quarter, reports business intelligence firm Informa. That’s in comparisonto the $7 monthly average posted by Western European subs. Overall, North American data ARPU grew 43 percent between Q2 2006 and Q2 2007. Informa cites demand for all-you-can-eat data packages, accelerating year-over-year 3G growth and increasing SMS traffic for the spike. AT&T posted 5 million WCDMA subscriptions at the end of June, compared to 250,000 a year earlier, pushing total North American 3G subscriptions past the 38 million mark–at the same time, the total number of text messages sent more than doubled year-on-year to 93.7 billion, equivalent to 120 per subscriber per month. Total North American data revenues amounted to $6.97 billion in the second quarter, a 66 percent year-on-year increase.
US Mobile Subscribers Now Over 243 million, Sending More Than 1 billion SMS Daily (CTIA)—Oct 23
——————————————-
The CTIA says there were over 243.4 million mobile subscribers in the US, representing some 81% of
the population. These users sent 28.8 billion SMS in June, and are now sending more than 1 billion
text messages per day.
M:Metrics Study: 92.5 Million Active SMS Users Make Short Code-Based Mobile Marketing the Most Effective Platform for Mobile Advertisers—Oct 23
———————————————–
“In the United States, CSCs represent the only universal way for brands to connect with almost all
mobile users,” said Evan Neufeld, vice president and senior analyst at M:Metrics. “In August 2007,
92.5 million, or 43 percent, of mobile subscribers actively engaged in text messaging. Of these
92.5 million mobile subscribers, 41 million send text messages almost every day. Not only is this
number impressive as a stand-alone figure, but it is exponentially higher than the potential reach
of the next available mobile advertising method.”
VZW Q3 2007 Numbers:
————————–
Verizon said that at the end of the quarter more than half of its retail customers—32 million—had
broadband-capable devices, and it continued to expand its EV-DO Rev A network.
The number of retail data customers increased by 35.6 percent to 42 million.
Data usage: During the third quarter Verizon Wireless customers sent or received 36.5 billion SMS
and 721 million MMS. Verizon customers also completed 29.7 million music and video downloads.
NFC Enabled handsets - Juniper Research - CellluarNews 10/30/2007
————————————–
New forecasts from Juniper Research show that around 52 million consumers will adopt new mobile
technologies such as NFC (Near Field Communication) and other physical mobile payment methods to pay
for everyday goods and services by 2011. This will help drive the physical mobile payments market to
$11.5 billion by the same year.
The new Juniper Research study found that by 2011, around 12% of the total mobile phones in
circulation will offer support for contactless payment, specifically NFC - equating to nearly
470 million NFC-enabled handsets worldwide, thereby providing a significant marketplace for retailers
to offer goods via mPayment applications.
U.S. tops ARPU in World - INforma 10/22/07
———————
North American subscribers now generate the highest monthly ARPU from mobile data services
worldwide, rising to $8.90 in the second quarter, reports business intelligence firm
Informa. That’s in comparison to the $7 monthly average posted by Western European subs.
Overall, North American data ARPU grew 43 percent between Q2 2006 and Q2 2007.
Informa cites demand for all-you-can-eat data packages, accelerating year-over-year 3G
growth and increasing SMS traffic for the spike. AT&T posted 5 million WCDMA subscriptions
at the end of June, compared to 250,000 a year earlier, pushing total North American
3G subscriptions past the 38 million mark–at the same time, the total number of text
messages sent more than doubled year-on-year to 93.7 billion, equivalent to 120 per
subscriber per month. Total North American data revenues amounted to $6.97 billion in the
second quarter, a 66 percent year-on-year increase.
U.S. Kids Mobile Phones - 12/2007 - Nielsen Research
———————————
Already, 35% of 8-12 year olds in the U.S. have a mobile phone, according to a study being released next week by Nielsen Mobile. When we look even more closely at mobile penetration at specific ages, we see that by the age of twelve, most U.S. tweens (56%) have a mobile phone.
According to Nielsen Mobile, about 16% of mobile tweens access the mobile Web and about 5% say they
watch TV on their phones.
Nielsen Mobile’s Mobile Vector service, we know that U.S. tweens and teens with video-enabled
phones may watch as much as 30-40% less overall television than the average 8-17 year old
1 in 8 American homes (this is key distintion) use Mobile Phone Only for Communications: - 12-2007
—————————————————–
The federal government estimates that one of every eight American homes uses only mobile phones for communications.
The data comes from the National Health Interview Survey, which was conducted between January and
June of this year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics.
The government noted that the number of wireless-only households has been steadily increasing since 2003 and now accounts for 13.6% of households.
Researchers found that more than 55% of all adults living with unrelated roommates relied solely on cellphones, and noted that this is the “highest prevalence rate among the population subgroups examined.” According to the survey, other characteristics of cord-cutter households included:
–More than 28% of renters were wireless only, compared with 6.7% of homeowners.
–Nearly 31% of adults ages 25 to 29 lived in households that used only cellphones, compared with 27.9% of
adults ages 18 to 24. Around 13% of adults between the ages of 30 to 44 and 7.1% of adults ages 45-64 own
only cellphones. The percentage dropped dramatically for those over age 65—only 2% of those adults lived in wireless-only households.
–Men were slightly more likely than women to live in a household that had cut the cord.
–Adults in the South and Midwest were more likely to rely on wireless than people living in the Northeast.
–Hispanic adults were the most likely to be living in a wireless-only household, at about 18%—compared with
11.3% of non-Hispanic white adults, and 14.3% of non-Hispanic black adults.
–Adults living in poverty were more likely to have cut the cord than those with higher income.
U.S. Carrier Data – As of Q3 2007
————————————
High Level Points:
• US Wireless data service revenues grew 9.4% Q/Q to $6.4B in Q307. Non-messaging data revenues continue to be in the 50-60% (of the data revenues)
range for the US carriers.
• Total 3G subscriptions (WCDMA and EVDO) grew to over 38 million (or 15.2%)
• The following 4 U.S. Carriers represent approx 85% of all U.S. wireless subscribers (total of 250million U.S. subs).
(Smaller Carriers such as Alltel and Dobson OR even MVNOs like Virgin USA might also be looked at as possible opportunities.)
• Important to note that majority of data revenues are derived from messaging activities at each Carrier.
• Telephia reported that 81% of U.S. mobile internet users have xhtml-mp capable browsers
• Approx 12%-19% of U.S. mobile users access the mobile internet and even smaller percentage (6%-8%) do so on a regular basis.
Text Ad Response - 12/7/2007 - Mmetrics
—————
Mobile media measurement firm M:Metrics said an estimated 41 million U.S. consumers got text ads
versus 19.3 million in Britain, which registered an 11.8 percent jump this third quarter over the prior.
An estimated 4.77 million U.S. consumers responded to those text ads, generating an 11 percent response rate.
“I think it’s just the fact that the entire space is becoming more interesting for marketers,”
said Mark Burk, industry analyst at M:Metrics, London. “The increase you see now is because the
consumer brands are going into mobile.”
According to M:Metrics, 9.96 million U.S. subscribers said they took part in polls and contests,
and 5.14 million said they responded to text ads they received. Also, 29 percent of U.S. subscribers
who received an SMS ad said they received ads for downloads for their mobile phone such as ringtones.
ESPN MObile viewership - RCR 1/7/2008
—————
About 32 million people in the U.S. access the mobile Web on a monthly basis, and ESPN has 9 million of them, Erhardt said. “We’re seeing better than 200% growth year over year for our mobile usage,” he said, although it’s off a lower base. By comparison, ESPN.com’s NFL content is up an average of 36% year over year, with 47.3 million page views, or 41% of all traffic, coming in the 24 hours beginning Mondays at noon. Game-time NFL content is up 43%, and fantasy football up 48%, the network said. According to ComScore, ESPN had 22.2 million unique visitors in November.
According to M:Metrics, 43.8% of those accessing sports information on a phone visit ESPN. Fox Sports draws 19.2%, followed by the NFL’s mobile site with 18.6% and CBS Sportsline at 11.4%.
iPhone Data usage is High - NYTIMES 1/14/08
————–
Google (NSDQ: GOOG) chimes in with its evidence: “On Christmas, traffic to Google from iPhones surged,
surpassing incoming traffic from any other type of mobile device, according to internal Google data made
available to The New York Times. A few days later, iPhone traffic to Google fell below that of devices
powered by the Nokia-backed Symbian operating system but remained higher than traffic from any other type of cellphone.”
The data is striking because the iPhone, an Apple product, accounts for just 2 percent of smartphones worldwide, according to IDC, a market research firm. Phones powered by Symbian make up 63 percent of the worldwide smartphone market, while those powered by Microsoft’s Windows Mobile have 11 percent and those running the BlackBerry system have 10 percent.
NPD Handset Data - Cameraphones/Video 1/22/08
———————–
In the U.S. handset market, multimedia has entered the mainstream. As of November 2007,
camera phones represented 79% of U.S. handset sales, cameras that capture video accounted for 56%,
and 52% of phones could play music, according to NPD’s Mobile Phone Track.
MObile Search Users 3Q 2007
———————
At least 46.1 million wireless subscribers used mobile search functions in the third quarter of 2007,
according to a new report released by Nielsen Mobile.
The most popular form of mobile search among data users during the quarter was 411, followed closely
by SMS-based searching, according to the report.
Local listings comprised the bulk of search objectives among those surveyed, however
many also searched for sports scores, news or weather while fewer searched for mobile content.
Nielsen Mobile also concluded that 61% of 411 search users are female, while 60% of WAP search users are male. Additionally, SMS-based searching skews younger with 33% being under the age of 25.
CARRIER Q4 2007 DATA
————-
VERIZON WIRELESS Q4 2007 - 65.7 million subs
————————-
As of the end of 2007, 74% of Verizon’s subscribers were subscribed to a data package,
and nearly 50% of its users own a 3G capable cell phone. Data revenues accounted for 21.3% of all revenues,
an increase from 15.8% in Q4 of 2006. Recently Verizon announced that it will continue to develop its
leading-edge data network with the trials of its fourth-generation high-speed network that
is slated to use LTE (Long Term Evolution) technology.
AT&T - 70.1 million subs
———–
– Data: ATT’s Lindner reiterated a point that the company has been making for awhile,
that the number of customers with data plans remains low, so there’s still a lot of headroom on this front.
Only 12% of ATT customers have advanced, smartphone-type handsets.
As with the iPhone, these customers have ARPU that’s double the average.
t the end of the year, there were 9+ million 3G subscribers. (approx 13% of total subs)
2 million + iphones sold at end of 2007 on AT&T..Activated.
YAHOO MObile Web Stats for all of 2007
———–
And Yahoo’s inventory on the mobile Web is in high demand: The company was the top-ranking Internet brand for wireless Web surfers in 2007, according to Nielsen Mobile, drawing more than 16 million unique visitors per month. Google was the No. 2 mobile Web destination, with nearly 11 million monthly visitors; MSN was third with more than 9 million.
iPhone Update - Canalys Research - Q4 2007
——————
Canalys Research’s latest report puts Apple’s share of the US smartphone market in Q4 2007 at 28 percent.
This is behind RIM’s 41% (RIM had 12M worldwide users as of end of 2007), but a good distance ahead of third place Palm (NSDQ: PALM) which has a 9 percent share.
Plus, this puts Apple ahead of all Windows Mobile device vendors combined, whose share was 21 percent in the quarter. In the EMEA region, Apple is the fifth largest smartphone maker. Worldwide, they are the world’s third largest with a 6.5 percent share, behind Nokia (NYSE: NOK) (52.9 percent) and RIM (NSDQ: RIMM) (11.4 percent).
NPD Group - Smartphones make up approx 11% of total U.S. handsets. AS OF Q3 2007
——————————
Many of the most popular handset features also became more common in new phones sold. In the third quarter, 72% of phones were sold with Bluetooth capability, 50% of new phones were able to play music in the third quarter of 2007 (double the prior year) and 11%were smartphones.
CEO of AT&T Mobility - 3GSM 2008 - Claims 95% of iPhone users regularly browse mobile web
—————
AT&T exclusively launched the device in mid-2007, mobile data consumption has grown dramatically.
According to de la Vega, 95% of iPhone owners regularly surf the web, even though 30% had never
done so prior to iPhone ownership. In addition, 51% have viewed videos via YouTube, and nine out of 10 rated the device better than their previous handset.
“There isn’t a device that’s easier to use,” de la Vega said. “[The iPhone] proves that price resistance is only as strong as the user experience is weak.”
Enhanced devices and improved user experiences are driving AT&T mobile data across the board. De la Vega said that 13 percent of all AT&T customers now own a 3G device, with another 12 percent owning integrated
devices–subscribers on 3G devices yield ARPU 20 percent higher than 2G users
Mobile Coupons - ABI RESEARCH - late 2007.
————–
A recent independent survey from ABI Research shows that 63% of consumers felt that a coupon
would be the most effective incentive to get them to respond to a mobile marketing message.
ABI also found that 52% of consumers would use mobile coupons for a discount at a local store.
Mobile SMS Campaign Market Size - MMETRICS 11/2007
————–
Current Usage of Short Codes: Today, more than 92.5 million consumers actively text message in United
States providing a fairly accurate estimate of potential audience size for a given messaging campaign.
As previously stated, few
formats of communication are as ubiquitous or as actively used as text. In the US marketplace alone over
92.5 million, or approximately 43%, of all mobile phone owners can be defined as active text
messengers (i.e., those who do so more than once a month). Additionally, this is a highly active user base:
over 41 million (people) text almost every day! Not only is this number impressive as a stand-alone figure, but it isexponentially higher than the potential reach of the next available mobile advertising environment, mobile browsing (WAP), in which 14.3 percent of all users engaged in during the month of August 2007.
NUmber of active devices in U.S. - MMETRICS 11/2007
—————-
There are more than 845 devices in the US market alone
MMETRICS Data — 2/7/2008
—————-
M:Metrics data show that 34 million consumers (13%+ of total subs) are regular information browsers.
Users ages 18-24 are twice as likely to be mobile Web users.
Mr. Neufeld said that weather information is the top mobile Web destination.
Also, the top sites browsed on the mobile Web are Google, Yahoo, Live, Go, MSN, MySpace,
Wikipedia and Microsoft, respectively.
More than 18 percent of mobile phone subscribers spend upwards of $100 on their phone bills every month.
58% of total U.S. Subs percent have a data plan.
8-to-24yrs olds with Phones - IDC - From NYTIMES 3/8/2008
——————————————–
Business analysts and other researchers expect the popularity of the cellphone —
along with the mobility and intimacy it affords — to further exploit and accelerate these trends.
By 2010, 81% of Americans ages 5 to 24 will own a cellphone, up from 53 percent in 2005, according to IDC,
a research company in Framingham, Mass., that tracks technology and consumer research.
ABI Research predicts 90M Global 4G users — 3/2008
————-
90 million 4G users by 2013
The total number of 4G subscribers worldwide, including both LTE and WiMAX,
is expected to exceed 90 million in 2013, but a number of milestones must be passed en route,
according to a new forecast from ABI Research
MobileTV usage in U.S. - 3/26/08 - RCR News - MMETRICS
———————————-
Numbers are kind of small overall,” Seamus McAteer (MMetrics analyst) said during a panel at the Future of Television conference here. M:Metrics reports anywhere from 1% to 2% of wireless subscribers now use mobile TV services in the United States.
Blackberry Results - 4/1/2008
—————–
BlackBerry now has some 14 million subscribers, up from 8 million a year ago.
RIM said it expects another 2.2 million subscribers this quarter.
Smartphones represent 12% of total cell phone units shipped,
but said the category is growing much faster than typical cell phones.
BlackBerry accounted for 41% of United States shipments for e-mail phones in the fourth quarter,
according to the British research firm Canalys. The iPhone had 28% and Palm, the maker of the Treo, had 9%.
Mobile Social Networking — RCR Wireless News 4/29/08 - Usage around 15% of total U.S. subs…
——————————————–
The number of social networks in wireless seems to increase by the day, depending on the definition of the term.
Outfits expanding beyond the Internet (MySpace, Facebook, Bebo) are elbowing their way in against a host of players from those specializing in mobile-centric profile-based services (MocoSpace, Peperoniti) to those who focus on chat (Jumbuck, AirG), blogging (Rabble), contests (Tapatap, Crush or Flush),
location (Loopt, Useful Networks, LocaModa) and photo- and video-sharing (FunMobility, Juice Wireless).
Not to mention a host of others, including communities focused on video, music, games and other types of content.
BOFA mobile banking customers - celluar-news 6/11/08
———————————
Bank of America says that it has surpassed one million unique active Mobile Banking customers.
The service was introduced nationwide in May 2007 as part of Bank of America’s suite of Online Banking services. Nearly 25 million consumers bank online with Bank of America.
Women make wireless purchase decisions says VZW - Female iPhone users- Information Week 6/10/2008
——————-
Women are also seen as the path to the entire household as 71% of them make decisions about their families’ wireless choices, according to Verizon Wireless.
In the last year (2007), the number of women buying smartphones nearly doubled to 10.4 million. T
he iPhone played a large role in this increase, with nearly 1 out of every 3 iPhones being owned by a woman.
But companies like Research In Motion and Palm have also seen an increase in female ownership.
“You are not seen as a geek anymore if you have a smartphone,” Carolina Milanesi,
research director at Gartner, told The New York Times. “Women, including wives and mothers,
need to keep track of their busy lives, too.”
China Mobile Subs - AP News Jun 26, 2008 00:20 EST
————————————————
China’s fast-growing number of mobile phone accounts has risen more than 8% since the start of the year to
592 million, while demand for traditional fixed-line service is falling, a state news agency reported Thursday. China Mobile has 400M+ of these subs
Blackberry Q2 2008 Results — Cellular News
———————–
RIM is seeing strong growth in international markets, with 33% of its subscribers based outside of North America.
That is flat with the previous quarter. Balsillie said 60% of first-quarter subscriber additions were
non-enterprise customers. That is up substantially from 38% the previous quarter.
Overall, 40% of RIM’s 16-million plus subscribers are non-enterprise customers.
Genuity Capital analyst Deepak Chopra said he believes the smartphone market is growing so fast
that there is enough room for RIM and Apple to continue to grow. He said the BlackBerry and iPhone account
for just 2% of the global-handset market, leaving ample room for each company to take marketshare from other rivals.
Memory Cards - Strategy Analytics — Cellular News
———————————————
A new report reveals that 592 million “slotted” phones were shipped worldwide in 2007,
representing 53% of all cellphone shipments.
The report also concludes that, with nearly 57% of slotted phone shipments in 2007,
the microSD (including microSDHC) slot format is now more popular than the MMC format.
The microSD format is expected to hit peak penetration of 86% in 2011, after which it will
face competition from other, new, high capacity systems, such as the Universal Flash Storage (UFS).
Steve Entwistle, Vice President of the Strategic Technologies within Strategy Analytics,
explains, “Penetration of slotted phones is already over 85% in many developed countries.
Simmons New Media Study released in April 2008
——————————————-
compares the usage of different mobile functions among consumers in the U.S. While 59% of
people who have used a cell phone in the past 30 days have text messaged, and 49% have
taken photos, less than 2% have shopped by mobile and less than 5% have used mobile
GPS – indicating the relative nascency of both mobile shopping and mobile GPS in terms
of becoming ingrained consumer habits.
Admob sees traffic grow on network - July 16th 2008 - Wireless Week
————————————————————-
Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch showed strong growth, with ad impressions increasing by 32% worldwide to 52 million in June. The devices also maintained their No. 9 position in the top 10 global handset ranking.
Other statistics released by the company include:
* 24.3% of ad requests in the AdMob network worldwide were from smartphones, increasing from 22.4% in May.
* Motorola lost share in each of the top 5 markets in June, leading to a 2.2% decline in share worldwide.
* Palm continued growing and now represents 2% of requests worldwide.
Mobile Browsing Numbers - Nielsen Mobile July 2008
———————-
40.4 million U.S. consumers accessed the Internet with a mobile device in May 2008 —
up from 29.7 million a year ago and 22.4 million in July 2006. And the United States ranked first
among 16 surveyed countries in penetration of the mobile Internet: 15.6% of American wireless
subscribers used the wireless Web, followed by the United Kingdom (12.9%), Italy (11.9%), Russia (11.2%) and Spain (10.8%).
Nielsen also found a surprisingly diverse audience on the mobile Internet:
37% of U.S. users are 35 to 54 years old, while 39% of users are 18 to 34 years old.
And while nearly one-fourth of all mobile Internet users reported a household income
of $100,000 or more, roughly the same number have a household income of less than $50,000.
Mobile Coupons - Mobile marketer article - Mobisix CEO - July 18th 2008
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Even more encouraging, a recent report from ABI Research states that 63 percent of consumers feel a coupon is the most valuable form of mobile marketing.
JupiterResearch estimates that, by 2011, more than $ 87 billion in sales will be generated by 3 billion mobile coupons.
GPS-enabled handsets - Parks Associates - July 2008
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Global shipments of GPS-enabled mobile devices will grow at 40% per year for the next five years to
reach 834 million units in 2012, according to a new report from Parks Associates. THIS MEANS Approx 595 million GPS handset in the market now.
Memory Slots on Handsets - 3 July 2008 - Strategy Analytics
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Strategy Analytics Handset Component Technologies service predicts that shipments
of phones equipped with removable memory card slots will grow at an average 13% per year over the next
five years, hitting 1.04 billion phones in 2011. This report, “Removable Memory Card Forecast:
Slotted Phone Penetration Exceeded 50% of All Phones in 2007,” reveals that 592 million slotted
phones were shipped worldwide in 2007, representing 53% of all cellphone shipments.
Cameraphone reach - MMetrics - 7/2008
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* “Cameraphones are in the hands of the majority of mobile phone users and are
increasingly a part of the fabric of peoples’ lives, with 78% of Europeans
and 66% of Americans owning a cameraphone today,” said Donovan.
“Photo messaging rates have risen steadily month over month with nearly a quarter of all
American mobile phone users and about a third of Europeans sending or receiving photos in April.”
Mobile Video compared to other Mediums - 8/2008 - Neilsen
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Nielsen says the average American now views 127 hours, 15 minutes of television programming per month (up from 121 hours, 48 minutes in 2007) while also increasing their Internet time to 26 hours, 26 minutes per month, up 9 percent over the previous year.
While Americans spend 2 hours, 19 minutes per month viewing video online, they now spend 3 hours, 15 minutes per month watching video content on mobile devices. Nielsen adds that as of the first quarter of 2008, 91 million Americans (roughly 36% of all U.S. mobile phone subscribers) now own a video-capable phone. Teens ages 13 to 17 are the most avid mobile video consumers, watching 5 hours, 25 minutes per month–adults ages 25 to 34 screen 3 hours, 36 minutes of mobile video per month, but adults ages 55 to 64 view just 2 hours, 10 minutes a month.
220 million Americans have Internet access at home and/or work and 73%, or 162 million went online in May. Watching video on the Internet is no longer a novelty; 119 million unique viewers viewed 7.5 billion video streams in May 2008. In addition as of Q1 2008, 91 million Americans (36% of all mobile phone subscribers in the U.S.) owned a video-capable phone.
Txt Capabilities number one feature when buying phone - 7/2008 - Amplitude Research
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According to a survey of cell phone users commissioned by ACCESS Systems Americas, Inc. and conducted by independent research firm Amplitude Research, buyers of new cell phones view accessing the Internet (61%) and email capabilities (63%) as most important features along with such items as text messaging (73%) and a camera (67%). Among the list of 19 items respondents selected from, music (34%) and video capability (33%) were also frequent choices, with only a small percentage selecting such features as battery life (0.5%) or voice activation (0.33%).
MySpace - Mobile Site - Press release - 7/2008
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MySpace adds its mobile website now receives more than 1.7 million unique daily visits within the U.S. alone
MobiTV - 4M subs - 8/2008
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Mobile broadcast service provider MobiTV announced that its managed mobile television and radio network
now tops more than 4 million subscribers. The milestone follows 10 months after MobiTV passed the 3 million benchmark–the firm first launched service in late 2003, and now boasts more than 50 channels, availability across over 350 devices and partnerships with more than a dozen operators, including AT&T, Sprint and Alltel.
CEO Nooney - “We definitely see spikes around LIVE EVENTS, but it’s a total viewer experience,” Nooney added. “We see MobiTV as a continuation of the home viewing experience. Because it’s on a mobile device, when there is something important going on and you’re away from home, [mobile TV] is the natural place to go. We’re very big believers in streaming live video,
LAWS protecting Consumers from TXT SPAM - Wireless Week 7/15/08
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There are two sets of federal regulation that are currently applied to text message advertising:
the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM Act).
The TCPA, enacted in 1991 and known to most people because of the national do-not-call registry promulgated by it, restricts unsolicited phone calls, faxes and also text messages. It is enforced by the FCC. Businesses that violate the TCPA may be liable for $500 per violation, which can be multiplied by potentially thousands of recipients.
The CAN-SPAM Act, enacted in 2003 because of public outcry against spam e-mail, prohibits false representations in e-mail, or e-mailing addresses obtained using automated means. It is enforced by the FTC. Advertisers that violate the CAN-SPAM Act may be subject to prosecution, with liability of up to $6 million. Therefore, the statute has the potential to reduce spam by serving as a threat to spammers.
U.S. Teen Mobile Users - Report - 7/2008 - Cellular-news.com
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In 2007, 91% of US 17-year-old girls had cellphones whereas only 78% of US 17-year-old boys had cellphones according to a recent study by MultiMedia Intelligence. The difference is quite striking as there is little difference in handset ownership between the genders at age 13, with 57 percent of teenagers having cellphones. Key findings regarding teen wireless subscribers include:
* The US 12-17 teen cellular subscribers surpassed 16 million in 2007. This is up 12% from 2006.
* By 2012, the number of teen subscribers will reach 17 million, a delta of only 1 million subscribers from 2007.
Wireless penetration rates for teens are reaching saturation, resulting in stagnating growth. Since the teen market is not a multiple handset demographic, subscriber growth is forced to slow.
By 2012, the number of teen subscribers will reach 17 million, with the Hispanic market alone accounting for three million users.
MMI says teen male segments see strong mobile ownership gains at two particular ages: 13 and 16.
In 2006, 13 year-old teen boys with mobiles accounted for about one million subscribers,
over 40 per cent higher than the 12 year-old teen boy segment.
Likewise, the number of 16 year-old teen boy mobile subscribers in 2007 numbered over 1.6 million,
almost 30 per cent higher than the 15 year-old teen boy group.
SMS Revs $177B - ABI Research 7/2008
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SMS is expected to generate $177 billion in global services revenues in 2013, according to ABI Research, New York. The market researcher said SMS will account for 83% of all mobile messaging revenues
The research finds that the developed regions of North America and Europe have the highest messaging ARPU and send the most messages from the computer to the handheld using instant messaging.
Subscribers from Asia-Pacific sign up for the most SMS alert services, according to the study.
Latin Americans are heavy texters, the research showed. However, they prefer the pay-as-you-go model
for their messaging plans.
Social Networking and TXTING affecting Email — Jupiter Research 8/2008 - Celluar-News
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Jupiter Research found that rising popularity of social networking sites and other forms of communication including text messaging and cell phone use are beginning to impact the effectiveness of e-mail marketing, particularly the numbers of consumers that say promotional messages inspired purchases.
22% of e-mail users said they use social networking sites instead of e-mail, with scores more
indicating they have used instant messaging (IM), text messaging, and cell phones instead of e-mail.
In 2007, 51% of e-mail users said e-mail inspired at least one online purchase,
and 47% said the same for off-line purchases. However, in 2008, the share of e-mail users
fell to 44% for online purchases and 41% for off-line purchases.
MAPS on MOBILES - INcrease but still small - July 24, 2008 — comScore/MMetrics
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the use of mobile maps is increasingly popular in the United States and Europe, with 8% of American mobile
subscribers and 3% of European subscribers accessing maps from the mobile phone in the three-month period ending May 2008. This represents a growth rate of 82% and 49% in the number of users, respectively.
According to the comScore M:Metrics Benchmark Study, the iPhone is the leading device used to access maps in the United States, and in Europe, the device trails the Nokia N95 and N70.
According to comScore, 73% of mobile subscribers accessing maps are doing so via the browser in the U.S.,
and in Europe, 57%. Less than a third of Americans and Europeans are using a downloaded application,
which allows even feature phones, with less computing power and often smaller screens, to better render
graphic-rich maps and directions. Despite the ubiquity of SMS usage in Europe, the penetration of consumers accessing maps and directions via SMS is 24%; only one percentage point higher than it is in the United States.
The vast majority of mobile map users are seeking driving directions, even in Europe, where public
transportation and non-vehicular options are more popular.
LBS REvenues Mostly from U.S. -Mobile Europe Magazine pg 32.
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In 2007, North America generated 81% of the world’s LBS revenue. In 2013 that percentage will be just 32%. In the same period, Europe will jump from 5% to 31%. APAC will rise from 7% share in 2007 to 27%.
North America has been so big due to CDMA handsets with GPS. GSM handsets generally have not offered native GPS.
NOKIA expects that half of its mobile phone models to have GPS by 2010-2012
Apple App Store - First 30 days - WirelessWeek - August 11, 2008
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In the 30 days since Apple opened the doors to the App Store, its online software clearinghouse,
users reportedly have downloaded more than 60 million programs for the iPhone.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said his company has sold an average of
$1 million a day in applications for a total of about $30 million in sales over the month.
Mobile Music Update - RCR Wireless - Aug 6. 2008
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Only 8% of U.S. mobile users listen to music on their handset, according to recent figures from M:Metrics,
and it seems that far fewer are actually buying the stuff from carrier-operated download services. More importantly, there doesn’t appear to be much of a business case for over-the-air downloads. Carriers must charge a premium to make on-the-go services a money-maker, and music lovers aren’t inclined to pay much more than the standard 99 cents for the privilege of getting a tune delivered to their phones.
iPhone Apps — Top 10 providers making the bulk of Revs - MOCONEWS 8/11/2008 (Diane Morrison)
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There has also been some grousing of how some applications so far three, have been pulled from the store with no explanation, as well as code in the iPhone that lets Apple remotely remove any undesirable software from the gadgets. Jobs confirmed to the WSJ that yes, Apple can do this, but only have the capability in case a program they okay through their store turns out to be a malicious one. Despite the cries that Apple is playing Big Brother, Jobs said it would be irresponsible not to be able to do this.
Interestingly, while the iPhone has some 500 applications for download, its the top ten developers that are making nearly half of the sales. Of the $21 million that developers made in the first month of sales, $9 million went to the top ten developers
Most U.S. subs have never viewed mobile video: Fierce Wireless 8/12/2008
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While nearly one-third of U.S. households have a video-capable mobile phone, operators are struggling to
find an audience for their mobile video services, according to Mobile TV: Analysis & Forecast (Second Edition).
This new report by market research firm Parks Associates found a majority of consumers with a video-capable mobile phone have never used the video features. For example, 56% have never watched a video clip using a mobile phone.
Mobile Msg to increase - Mobile email - Cellular News 8/13/2008
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Total spending on mobile messaging services by consumers will rise 15% from $65 billion in 2007 to over
$88 billion by 2012, according to a new Strategy Analytics report. Although SMS will continue to contribute
to the vast share of consumer messaging spend, the availability of low-cost flat-rate data plans will enable
rapid growth in usage of traditional PC based messaging services, such as email and instant messaging via mobile.
By 2012 mobile email will account for 20% of total end user mobile messaging spending.
Mobile Advertising Recall — LIMBO Research 8/2008 - Cellular News
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Text messaging, however, remains the most common advertising format in all; 74 percent in India,
48 percent in the UK and 22 percent in the US. Mobile web advertising was most prevalent in the UK,
with 16 percent of respondents recalling advertising compared with 8 percent of those in the US and
4 percent of those in India. Radio also showed a striking variation with nearly 40 percent of those
in India recalling advertisements through radio on their mobile phones compared to only 9 percent
in the UK and 3 percent in the US.
The report shows that younger males typically view mobile Internet advertising the most.
The brands recalled in advertising via this channel were mainly mobile carriers, handset manufacturers,
media brands and digital entertainment companies.
Mobile TV Nubmers - Global - eMarketer Report 8/2008
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In Asia-Pacific, millions of Japanese and South Korean users are able to watch free-to-air Olympics
content beamed to their mobile phones by terrestrial broadcasters. Japanese consumers snapped up 20 million mobile handsets with built-in television receivers during 2007. South Korea counts around 9 million terrestrial mobile television viewers and 2 million satellite-based mobile TV viewers. In comparison, the largest US mobile video service provider, MobiTV, had 4 million customers in August 2008.
Mobile Phone Saturation in North America - Mobile marketer.com - 8/21/08 - Forrester
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A new report from Forrester Research claims that mobile phone penetration is at 91 percent of Generation Y (aka Millennials) homes, much higher than the 80 percent for all households across North America. (Gen Y is kids born in mid to late 1980s - approx 70 million)
“Gen Y consumers are not only the most likely to have a mobile phone, they are also the most likely to use their phone for services other than voice..”
High-end phone owners are the heaviest mobile Internet users, according to Forrester.Apple iPhone users are not only the most likely to use the Internet on their phone, but they are the most frequent users as well.
Users of handsets from Palm and Research In Motion Inc.’s BlackBerry are also as likely as iPhone customers to browse on their phones.
While the iPhone, Palm and BlackBerry account for only a 4% slice of the overall mobile phone market in
North America, they represent four times as large a share of mobile Internet users, Mr. Golvin said in his report. Rogers, Bell Mobility and TELUS account for at least 83 percent of all Canadian mobile subscribers.
Nationwide, Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile account for at least 78% of all U.S. subscribers.
That number will inch up 5% points if Verizon Wireless’ plans to buy smaller carrier Alltel Wireless
gets regulatory approval.
*** Analyzing the evidence, Forrester found that mobile phones are no longer just about voice.**
Half of all North American subscribers now use text messaging and more than a third use picture messaging. More than one in six goes online on their phone.
Again, Generation Y is leading the evolution in mobile usage behavior.
While only 5% of all mobile phone users download or stream music to their phone each month,
that number is 12% for Generation Y subscribers.
“Gen Yers are not only more likely to use data applications on their phone than the overall population,
they’re more likely to do so with greater frequency,” Mr. Golvin said in his report.
Mobile Advertising Networks - Key points - RCR News 8/2008
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Pricing and inventory-management tools in the nascent, more fragmented world of mobile are even less
finely honed than in the online arena. And mobile is awash in unsold inventory, with unsold space on
everything from the least expensive locations (specifically, social networking sites) to the priciest,
high-profile mobile Internet destinations.
“There’s a ton of inventory in mobile; the fill rate isn’t 100% anywhere I’ve seen,” Walczak said.
“Everybody’s fighting for the same dollar from brands looking to jump into the space.
It’s very competitive, but because it’s not as proven, agencies aren’t jumping as aggressively into it yet.
Smartphone StATS - mOCONEWS 8/27 - gARTNER
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Consumers worldwide are expected to purchase as many as 190 million smartphones this year, representing an increase of 52% compared to last year. Gartner Research Director Carolina Milanesi told Dow Jones:
“We are expecting the smartphone market to grow strongly with royalty free operating systems like Symbian,
Android, and Linux pushing deeper down into product portfolios. Apple’s (NSDQ: AAPL) iPhone isn’t huge in
sales volume, but it helped energize the market. People are now walking into stores and asking for a smartphone, something that didn’t really happen in the past.” If sales go as expected, smartphones will make up about 15 percent, or $65 billion, of the overall 1.28 billion handset market.
2012 expectations: Looking further out, Milanesi expects smartphone unit sales to reach more than 700 million of the 1.8 billion handset market by 2012. At those levels, smartphones will represent 65%, or $200 billion of the $312 billion total mobile phone market. The driving factors are royalty-free operating systems that help reduce the cost of handsets.
VERISIGN Sees A2P messaging growth of 33% Year-over-Year - VeriSign Msg Index- Q2 2008
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Application to person messages (A2P), such as news alerts, ring tones, promotional video clips, and
enterprise messages sent to mobile users, also rose sharply in Q2 2008, from approximately 186 million messages in Q1 2008 to approximately 249 million messages in Q2 2008, an increase of close to 33%. Contributing to this growth were increases in the steady adoption of mobile banking services by VeriSign’s customers, including 7 of the top 10 banks in the United States and a 30 percent increase in traffic volumes for standard and premium A2P traffic messages carried in Europe.
Total Mobile Payments to Grow Nearly Ten Fold by 2013 - Celluar News 9/2008
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Purchases via mobile devices of digital and physical goods, contactless NFC (Near Field Communications) transactions and money transfers will together generate transactions worth over $600bn globally by 2013, according to Juniper Research’s Mobile Payments Study. This figure represents the gross value of all the items being purchased or the value of money being transferred. The top 3 regions for mobile payments (Far East & China, W. Europe and N. America) will represent over 70% of the global mobile money transfer gross transaction value by 2013
Canadian Mobile Penetration - 9/2008 - Cellular News
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During the quarter, there were just over 385k new connections, taking the total to 20.73m and increasing penetration to 61.6%. This is much the lowest level of any developed world market and we would expect the new entrants to stir up the market considerably.
Rogers is slowly extending its lead over its main rival, Bell Mobility and Telus. It connected 270k new customers in the quarter to take its total to 7.68m. It now has 1.34m more than Bell and 1.85m more than Telus, compared with 1.16m and 1.70m at the end of March
Finger Print Scanners on Mobile Phones - 9/2008 - Cellular News
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The Kerton Group, a wireless consulting and analysis firm - says Of the over 40 mobile phones with integrated fingerprint sensors shipping today, most are sold in Asia.
Chinese and Japanese consumers value security to the degree of choosing handsets with security features.
In China, these phones also employ the user interface features of the sensors. And in Japan, phones lock
the FeliCa payment function with fingerprint security. Adoption of fingerprint phones has also recently
begun in Europe and availability to U.S. consumers is expected soon.
U.S. Consumer love Flip Phones — REUTERS 9/10/2008
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RIM says that in the United States, about 70% of mobile phone users opt for a flip phone.
RIM’s retail push began in September of 2006, when the original candy-bar-shaped BlackBerry Pearl was l
aunched with a slate of multimedia features aimed squarely at the mainstream market.
The device was a runaway success, selling more than 10 million units, Misek said.
In turn, RIM’s results dazzled investors and its share price soared.
U.S. Teen Mobile useres - MMEtrics comScore - MediaPost Online 8/29/08
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comScore marketing analyst Jen Wu — “Over 68% of teens are on a plan where another family member is responsible for the bill,” Wu said.
“So while they may want to download games and ringtones, or send picture messages, they often need
to ask for permission first,” Meanwhile, nearly 19% of teens are on a prepaid plan,
which offers more independence, but still poses some cost constraints.
Most teens do not have phones with cutting-edge technology, either. In fact, comScore
found that the most popular teen handset was the silver Motorola RAZR V3m.
Nearly half a million users ages 12-17 have the phone,
Teens are also communication-fiends, as 74% of them used their phones for text
messaging and 13% used major IM services like AOL Instant Messenger (AIM).
In contrast, only about half of the overall population used their phones for
text messages, while 9% used IMs. But while they are seeming text-a-holics,
they aren’t really using or responding to texts as advertisements.
Just 6% of teen mobile users responded to a poll or contest via short code–i.e.,
voting for an “American Idol” contestant–in the past month, slightly higher than
the overall population (4.5%) but still not a critical mass. Even fewer teens responded
to a text-message ad (1.6%), in contrast to the 2.4% of overall mobile users.
And just 1.5% of teens responded to an offline ad that directed them to text a short code in.
3G iphone sales in U.K. - Cellular News - 9/11/2008
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The 3G iPhone is achieving a market share in the UK handset market of between 4-6%,
despite still being exclusive to just one mobile operator in the country. Sources told the
UK trade magazine, Mobile Today that the company is stilling around 27,000 iPhone’s per week -
although that is down on the 50,000 per week sold when the handset was initially launched.
U.S. Tweens and Mobile - Neilsen Mobile - News.Cnet.com 9/10/2008
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SAN FRANCISCO–Nearly half of kids age 8 to 12 years old own cell phones in the U.S.,
in what could be the next big cell phone demographic for the mobile industry,
according to a Nielsen report released here Wednesday at the CTIA Fall 2008 trade show.
Nielsen says that 46 percent of the 20 million young consumers known as “tweens”
are using mobile phones. On average kids get their first cell phone between the ages of 10 and 11 years old.
About 55 percent of tweens, who own cell phones, send text messages and 21 percent download ringtones.
The main reason these kids have phones is because their parents want them to have them in
case of an emergency or problem. But about 92 percent of those surveyed said they restrict
how tweens use their phones, with 69 percent of them prohibiting the download of games
and ringtones, which typically incur charges. Roughly 65 percent of tweens with phones
get cell phone service through family plans.
U.S. households that are Wireless only - CTIA data - Forbes.com 5/12/08
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14% of U.S. households are now wireless-only, up from 8% in December 2005,
according to industry group CTIA-The Wireless Association.
Mobile as personal device: Source unknown:
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The typical mobile phone user carries their phone around for an average of 14 hours per day.
Media advertising exceeds $600 billion annually, however the average TV viewer is exposed to just 14 hours of TV per week across a wide variety of networks. Leisure Internet exposure (non-work hours) is 10 hours per week. The typical mobile phone user has their phone with them 14 hours a day, yet marketing to that device represents a little over 1% of the global media spend.
Lost Mobile vs Lost Wallet - Unisys 2003 Study
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A 2003 study by Unisys revealed that it takes on average 26 hours to report a lost wallet,
but 68 minutes to report a lost mobile phone.
Delivery times of SMS - VeriSign’s numbers
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90% of Messages Delivered within 5 Seconds or Less
99.9% of Messages Delivered within 15 Seconds
You would then assume that messages read shortly after delivery.
U.S. Mobile Subs Total after first half of 2008 - CTIA - Mobile Entertainment.com 9/18/2008
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The number of mobile phone users in the US has reached 262.7 million, equivalent to a
penetration rate of 86.4 per cent - though still below the 100 per cent seen in many Western European countries.
Meanwhile, wireless data service revenues in the US during 1H08 increased by 40 per cent year-on-year
to $14.8 billion Wireless data now accounts for 20 per cent of all US wireless revenues.
Text messaging is a big reason for the jump in mobile data revenues.
The CTIA said Americans sent 75 billion text messages in June 2008 alone.
U.S. households with mobile as only phone - RCR Wireless 9/17/2008 - NielSen
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More than 20 million U.S. households have ditched their landline phones and rely solely on wireless
handsets for home telecommunications, according to a new report by The Nielsen Company.
The study also predicts one in five U.S. households will be wireless-only by the end of this year.
The report found that most cord cutters have lower-level annual incomes (59% have household incomes of $40,000 or less), are typically small households (1 or 2 residents), or are moving or changing jobs.
Mobile Music stats.. - Strategy Analytics 9/2008
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Strategy Analytics survey data shows that although 83% of respondents use their phones to play music,
only 6% of music tracks on devices are from mobile stores,
Global Mobile Subs to reach 4billion by end of 2008 - Informa - MobileEntertainment.com 9/22/08
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It will have taken just five quarters to amass the latest billion additions, says Informa.
There will be 4 billion mobile subscriptions globally at the end of 2008,
according to the latest forecasts from Informa Telecoms & Media.
However, the rise of global mobile subscription numbers is set to slow,
with Informa suggesting the five billionth subscription will be signed up during 4Q 2011,
with worldwide penetration reaching in excess of 70%.
Average U.S. SMS Messages Sent/Rec - NIELSEN MOBILE – 9/2008
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2008, U.S. mobile subscribers sent and received on average 357 text messages per month, compared with making and receiving 204 phone calls a month.
The surge in text messaging is being driven by teens 13 to 17 years old, who on average send and receive about 1,742 text messages a month. Teens also talk on the phone, but at a much lower rate, only making and receiving about 231 calls per month. The report even suggests that tweens or kids under the age of 12 are also heavy text users, averaging about 428 messages per month.
iPhone Global Market Share - NYTIMES 9/24/2008
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Despite its success, the iPhone accounted for just 2.8% of smartphones sold worldwide in the second quarter, according to Gartner, a market analysis firm. Windows Mobile, a seven-year-old Microsoft operating system that runs on phones sold by more than 160 carriers, has just 12% of the market.
Mobile banking customers in U.S. - Javelin Strategy - marketwatch.com 9/15/08
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According to Javelin Strategy & Research, 27 million U.S. adults participated in mobile banking
activities in 2008 and in 2009 that number will grow to 47 million.
Global Mobile Revs - Chetan Sharma Consulting
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During the first half of 2008, the U.S. moved past Japan as the world’s most lucrative mobile data market,
with operators racking up $17.5 billion in data revenues versus $13.6 billion for Japanese operators.
China followed at $7.8 billion–together, the three markets account for close to 50 percent of combined worldwide data service revenues
Japan’s NTT DoCoMo led among individual operators with $6.8 billion in data revenues during the first
six months of 2008, crossing 84% in 3G penetration. The remainder of the top 10, in descending order:
China Mobile, KDDI, Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint Nextel, China Unicom, Softbank, O2 UK and T-Mobile USA.
According to Chetan Sharma, data revenues for the top 10 operators increased 10.3% from 2007 marks,
and while their collective subscriber share is around 30%, their mobile data revenues represent
close to half of global totals. During the first half of 2008, many carriers experienced an increase in
non-SMS data revenues–on average, Japan and Korea rake in between 70 and 75% of their data revenues
from non-SMS applications, with the U.S. between 50 and 60% and Western Europe around 20 to 40%.
Smartphones - Global shares - RCR News 10/2/2008
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In the smartphone arena, Nokia’s market share stood at as 47% at the end of the second quarter,
according to Gartner, down from 51% in the second quarter of 2007. Meanwhile, RIM’s share has grown from 9% to around 17% during the same period.
And in the United States, the iPhone’s testing ground, Nokia is a second-stringer. According to Strategy Analytics, Nokia commanded only 10% of the U.S. market in the second quarter, though that number improved dramatically from the 5% market share Nokia owned in the first quarter.
Smartphone U.S. numbers - RCR News 10/3/2008
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One snapshot of the smartphone sector, courtesy of comScore M:Metrics: 20 million Americans own smartphones, an increase of 120% since last July. AT&T Mobility leads the charge, with 8.5 million smartphone users, according to the comScore M:Metrics data, for a 150% year-on-year growth rate. Even T-Mobile USA Inc., which is just building out its 3G network, saw a 137% year-on-year growth in subscribers embracing smartphones.
The top five smartphones sold in the U.S., according to the comScore M:Metrics data:
Apple’s 8GB iPhone, RIM’s BlackBerry 8100 Pearl, Motorola’s Q and
Samsung’s BlackJack II (SGH-i617) and Blackjack (SGH-i607).
According to Nic Covey, director of insights at Nielsen Mobile, there is a latent but definable growth in
QWERTY keypad use somewhat trailing this text-happy trend. Subscribers who have a QWERTY keypad and an SMS plan send 54% more text messages, which are filling carriers’ coffers.
iPhone Accessories - RCR News 10/3
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Apple for instance sells about $100-worth of accessories for every iPhone it sells. The trend towards personalization and fashion continues to move consumers, as does functionality such as hands-free headsets.
JupiterResearch Finds Social Networking, Test Messaging and Cell Phone Use Beginning to Impact Effectiveness of E-mail Marketing - Press Release 8/2008
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(New York, NY, August 4, 2008) - JupiterResearch, a leading authority on the impact of the Internet and
emerging consumer technologies on business, has found that rising popularity of social networking sites
and other forms of communication including text messaging and cell phone use are beginning to impact the effectiveness of e-mail marketing, particularly the numbers of consumers that say promotional messages inspired purchases.
According to a new report “The Social and Portable Inbox: Optimizing E-mail Marketing in the New Era of
Communication Tools ,”emerging forms of communication are leading to diminished use of e-mail.
Twenty-two percent of e-mail users said they use social networking sites instead of e-mail,
with scores mo