Urban75 Home About Offline BrixtonBuzz Contact

Mobile internet phones: the most popular model is...

The full Nielsen report (PDF) is much more interesting than the little bit about phone stats.

Nielsen currently tracks mobile Internet penetration in 16 countries. Among these countries, the US leads in mobile
Internet penetration among wireless subscribers with 15.6 percent, followed by the UK (12.9 percent) and Italy (11.9
percent).Q1 2008, according to CTIA, the wireless industry trade group

According to Nielsen, 144 million (57%) US mobile subscribers were data users in Q1 2008 (defined as using text, or mobile internet)

40 million subscribers (15.6 percent in May 2008) were active users of mobile Internet services, using those services at least once on a monthly basis

The average mobile Internet user in the US visited 6.4 individual websites per month in Q1 2008
Click to expand...

If anyone wants to continue the phone(y) wars, some extra things to consider:

  • The iPhone was only launched in three EU countries in Nov 2007, so 2008 Q1 figures are unlikely to show much uptake.
  • Motorola and Apple launched the ROCKR phone a few years ago which acted as an iPod and worked with iTunes. It was a horrible failure, for a variety of reasons, including the fact that it was fairly crippled, probably by Apple.
  • The RAZR has 11% of the US mobile market, so 10% of mobile use is fairly in-line with where it should be.
 
Updated stats for Q2 2008 here:

smart1.jpg


table2.jpg


http://palmaddict.typepad.com/palmaddicts/2008/09/gartner-says-wo.html
 
And some more interesting figures: the iPhone might be generating all the headlines in the States, but when it comes to actual smartphone traffic, the humble Centro is way ahead, beaten only by the Blackberry into second place.

The top five smartphones in the US are now (in order) the BlackBerry Pearl, Palm Centro, BlackBerry Curve, Apple iPhone, and Samsung Instinct

The iPhone is now responsible for 7.8% of all smart phone traffic in the U.S., up from 5.2% last month - but this doesn't reflect the actual market share of the iPhone, because iPhone users probably access the web more than other users (I'd imagine part of the rise is down to folks playing with their new 3G phones). The Palm Centro has over twice as much traffic at 18.7%.

Smartphone kings Nokia were of course #1 worldwide with 62% of all smartphone traffic worldwide, but none of their smartphones made the US top 20!

http://www.admob.com/marketing/pdf/mobile_metrics_aug_08.pdf (PDF)
 
That _does_ seem odd to me, because, you know, I've only really heard about the Centro here - not in press terms, obviously Apple are going to do best there, but I've seen plenty of blogs, and also, you know, real people, talking about their iPhones, and none about Centros. So I've never really got the impression that they are particularly popular. This may it seems be mistaken (unless Centro owners each spend an _bizarrely_ large amount of time on the net).
 
They've shifted 2 million Centros, mainly in the States, it's on on at least four major carriers, and Palm has always been very popular there, so I'm not that surprised to see them in the top five, although fluctuating between #1 and #2 is pretty amazing.

Although the OS is ageing, it's still by far one of the easiest and simplest to get online with, and some of the network deals in the States lets users watch TV on the Centro too.

It's a different deal in the UK where we're stuck with clunky GSM so even though the phone can playback YouTube vids and the like, it's unusably slow.
 
Can they specify by latest handset only? Rather than all the legacy handsets people bought years ago? Then it would be a fairer measure.
 
Marius said:
Can they specify by latest handset only? Rather than all the legacy handsets people bought years ago? Then it would be a fairer measure.
Click to expand...
Err, on that same page:
During June through August 2008, the top four best-selling smartphones based on sales to consumers were the Apple iPhone 3G, the Blackberry Curve, the BlackBerry Pearl and the Palm Centro, says NPD.
Click to expand...
How else can they judge it than by the current market leaders?
 
Marius said:
When there was also an upgrade iPod available that wasn't £270 + £35 a month in fees for 18 months?

People were buying a Phone that just happened to be an iPod not an iPod that just happened to be a phone.
Click to expand...

There is a pay as you go iphone from O2 now but you pay a hefty price to get it.

The commercial reasoning for DRM plays a part in the iphone as ipod stuff too - if people bought a lot of DRM'd music from itunes and didnt want to have to muck around, they'd need an apple device to play it on the move.

I think Apple like to show off stats for how much longer iphone users spend on the net whilst mobile. The UI is bound to be the reason for this, along with the unlimited data use plans. But price, no choice of network, and relatively large size of the phone stand in the way of it becoming most popular handset.

At the moment there seems to be more indication that competitors see and will copy the benefits of the app store, less signs that anybody else has actually figured out the necessary ingredients that make a joyous UI ( decent multitouch, glass screen, good looks & smooth animation). Not that the animation on v2 iphones is quite as silky smooth as v1.
 
traffic/customer is the interesting number. It indicates the 'engagement'... The goodness, if you will.

For email, you'd expect to find RIM number one.

For web, I'd expect Apple would be top.

Although I could be very wrong on those expectations. Either way, traffic per handset, categorised by traffic type, will speak volumes about how good a device is at certain things.
 
I've bought a cheap Motorola phone to replace my past-retirement Samsung mobile (broke a SIM pin), and the thing is terrible. Even if it's cheap, the buttons (which AFAIK are the same as in the expensive models) are uncomfortable, and the software is worse. Once I buy the guitar, my next investment will be to buy a half-decent Sony-Ericsson.

However, one of the things that might lead people to choose the RAZR in the states is that is an American product (I wouldn't be surprised if they added a "MADE IN THE USA" sticker on all boxes) and has a huge modding community (that has no instructions to add custom background to my POS, but you get what you pay).
 
It's amazing how well the iPhone's done in so little time. All those other phones have had years to build up a brand and a customer base...
 
Kid_Eternity said:
It's amazing how well the iPhone's done in so little time. All those other phones have had years to build up a brand and a customer base...
Click to expand...
LOL. Like Apple didn't already have a vast and hugely loyal user base and weren't already one of the biggest, richest and most recognisable brands on the planet, backed by a near-bottomless PR budget!
 
Those kind of lists are inherently "yesterdays news" which tell little about the way things are going. The G1, for example, doesn't feature at all. So those lists are an odd thing to herald.
 
"Bottomless PR budget" is a rationalisation as to why they get so much coverage. Having worked with them, my experience is that their PR budget is in fact relatively small. A mix of brand halo and arrogance fuels that side of things, not dollars.
 
paolo999 said:
"Bottomless PR budget" is a rationalisation as to why they get so much coverage. Having worked with them, my experience is that their PR budget is in fact relatively small. A mix of brand halo and arrogance fuels that side of things, not dollars.
Click to expand...

Having devices that are easy to use and look nice probably helps a bit too...Apple deserves kudos for doing that so well, it's not like it was out of the reach of the other global corporations on that list.

As I said above it'll be very interesting to see if any Android phone makes same the level of success in the same time frame given that Google are the biggest brand on the planet with billions to spend.
 
editor said:
LOL. Like Apple didn't already have a vast and hugely loyal user base and weren't already one of the biggest, richest and most recognisable brands on the planet, backed by a near-bottomless PR budget!
Click to expand...

And nokia only had 20 pence in the bank and sold twenty phones a year yeah? :rolleyes:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

P
My talktalk Internet is down
Replies
5
Views
255
stethoscope
stethoscope
editor
What the USB port colours mean
Replies
4
Views
138
UnderOpenSky
UnderOpenSky
gentlegreen
Bluestacks Android emulator left a phantom phone on my Google account. (EDIT: THREE)
Replies
3
Views
224
High Voltage
High Voltage
newme
Internet/TV deals 2025
Replies
0
Views
168
newme
newme
Cloo
Help Is Back Market any good for buying laptops?
Replies
15
Views
588
gentlegreen
gentlegreen
Back
Top Bottom