Mobile to overtake fixed Internet access by 2014” was the big headline from the widely shared infographic later in this post.
To help you keep up-to-date with the rise in consumer and company adoption of mobile and it’s impact on mobile marketing, Dave Chaffey, Rob Thurner and I will be keeping this post updated throughout 2013 as the new stats come through. Rob Thurner is the Smart Insights Expert commentator on Mobile marketing and author of our Briefing on Mobile Marketing Best Practices. You can hear Rob talk on how to assess mobile marketing priorities in a free webcast at the Smart Insights #marketingpriorities2013 Digital Marketing Summit on 11.01.2013.
Since we’re just into 2013, in this January 2013 update to this post we are featuring some of the latest updates on mobile statistics from 2012 and highlight some of the best sources to make the business case for investment in mobile marketing in your presentations and business cases to colleagues or clients.
The best sources for mobile marketing statistics?
- 1. Google Mobile Planet. A regular survey for different countries starting in 2011, this enables you to prepare your own reports. We recommend this source for the range of countries covered:
In addition to downloads for each country, you can also create your own charts focusing on KPIs of interest. For example, if you’re based in Australia you can look at usage by demographic.
The weakness of the current data is that it focuses on Smartphones, not tablets. It may be useful for pushing back against over-enthusiastic colleagues or understanding consumer barriers. For example, less than a third of Australians have ever bought on a smartphone and you can see there are barriers of security and preference for desktop purchases.
Wave 2 was in spring 2012, with Wave 1 in 2011. Hopefully Wave 3 is due for 2013. You can read about the sample size in each country.
- 2. ITU. The International Telecoms Union data reports mobile usage including mobile broadband subscriptions to show growth in use of mobile. This reported at country, continent and overall levels, so is the best overall source for mobile penetration worldwide. Much of the information is free – see their free mobile statistics section.
- 3. Xyologic app download reports. This is a great source for showing the overall level of app usage across the four major mobile app platforms by country and drilling down into the popularity of individual apps for different sectors like retail, banking and travel. Around 30 countries are covered, for example, if you’re based in Canada:
We also recommend the Flurryblog (http://blog.flurry.com) for specific reports on trends in app usage. For example, this recent compilation of app usage shows the dominance of games and social networking and the potential of utilities.
- 4. Ofcom Internet usage report. Ofcom’s seventh International Communications Market Report was published on 13th December 2012, this examines take-up, availability, price and use of broadband, landlines, mobiles, TV, radio and post across 17 major countries.
Global increase in use of mobile browsing – May 2012
Here’s some interesting new data showing how mobile use varies between different parts of the world. Look at the scale and growth of mobile usage in Asia in particular.
Source: Pingdom, May 2012
This table also shows the dramatic growth rates in mobile share of web traffic across the world over the last two years:
Consumer preferences for using mobile commerce for retail
We know from the oft-quoted stat later in this post that mobile access to the Internet will exceed desktop access by 2012. But when reviewing mobile adoption statistics, it’s access doesn’t equate to usage or preference. Good evidence is presented in this new research published by eMarketer on Jan 24th, 2012.
It shows that PC/laptop purchases are preferred by 87% of respondents, with mobile websites preferable compared to apps for retail.
Mobile usage statistics in Europe
We now add some detail to consumer mobile preferences using the latest July 2011 Comscore Mobile Lens data on Mobile phone usage.
The latest data (collected May 2011) suggests that mobiles are not used as widely as might be expected, given the hype, for different web applications across Europe, with just 32% using a mobile browser across these 5 European countries, although the figure exceeds 40% in the UK.
Mobile retail usage in Europe
Looking at the retail sector, we can see that just 1 in 10 use mobile access to retail sites through mobile web and apps.
However, the report does show the future growth potential with year-on-year growth rates of 80% suggesting a brighter future for mobile usage.
If you’re a retailer planning your strategy then the report has additional info on breakdown between mobile web and app access to retail. The stats that matter most will be the % of visitors already accessing or buying by mobile and I know this is over 10% in many cases.
Dave Chaffey
In 3 years mobile “should” take over desktop internet usage
What do you think? Either way – this info-graphic from Microsoft Tag provides some serious food for thought and it’s great to see this data together to help with future marketing planning.
Source: http://www.smartinsights.com/mobile-marketing/mobile-marketing-analytics/mobile-marketing-statistics/
P&D News 