Articles

18.2.2011 Mobile habits evolve

Consumers in markets such as the US, UK and Japan are embracing an increasingly wide range of mobile media activities, a study has found. Research firm comScore has released a new reportdiscussing the major trends in this category last year, covering the US, Japan and "EU5" - France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK. It found 46.7% of American mobile subscribers, equating to 109m people, engaged in pastimes like surfing the net, using apps or downloading content via this route in December 2010, a 7.6 percentage point jump year-on-year. Smartphone ownership in the country also reached 27% by the close of last year, measured against 16.8% at the end of 2009.

Looking to Europe, mobile media uptake grew seven percentage points in the timeframe under assessment, attaining 37%. The penetration of devices like the iPhone and alternatives powered by Google's Android rose nearly 10% in the EU5, hitting 31.1%, peaking at 38% in Spain, 35% in Italy and 33.6% in the UK.

Overall, it was estimated there are now 63.2m US smartphone users, alongside 16.6m in the UK and Italy, 14m in Germany, 13.2m in Spain and 12.2m for France. Japan's mobile audience stood at 100m people in December 2010, three-quarters of which used some form of media from a handset, incorporating 55% accessing an internet browser during the same month.

B.L. 18.2.2011