Mobile Social Networking, Banking and Navigation See Strong Growth in 2011
A white paper from TNS Mobile Life offers a glimpse into the mobile services that are set to see strong growth in 2011.
According to the white paper, 19 percent of global mobile subscribers will take part in mobile social networking in 2011, up from 12 percent in 2010. Meanwhile, 14 percent of subscribers will partake in mobile banking, up from 9 percent in 2010. Thirteen percent of subscribers will use mobile navigation services in 2011, up from 8 percent last year.
Overall, downloading ringtones still leads the way with a 26 percent response, though this is down from 29 percent in 2010. Downloading caller tunes is second with 23 percent, followed by downloading graphics with 22 percent, downloading music with 22 percent, downloading apps with 20 percent and downloading games with 19 percent.
It’s worth noting that the top three mobile activities listed above will see slight declines this year.
Watching social video (15 percent in 2011), using location services (12 percent), blogging (12 percent), watching live TV (12 percent), subscriptions (12 percent) and utilizing mobile wallets (10 percent) are also mobile activities set to see significant increases in 2011 compared to 2010.
Meanwhile, streaming music (17 percent), streaming TV/video (11 percent) and speech to text (9 percent) are new mobile activities on the list.
According to the most recent numbers from comScore, 37.3 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used downloaded apps in March, while 27.3 percent accessed social networking sites or blogs, 25.7 percent played games and 17.9 percent listened to music on mobile phones.
Back in March, comScore showed that 29.8 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers accessed mobile financial services in the fourth quarter of 2010, up 54 percent from the fourth quarter of 2009.
Also, 26 percent of mobile banking customers said their primary method of accessing financial accounts was through their mobile device/cellphone, while 36 percent of mobile credit card customers said the same.
eMarketer cites numbers from Mercatus LLC and Visa that show a 19.6 percent penetration for mobile financial services in the U.S. in 2010. This figure is expected to reach 27.3 percent in 2011.
Sources:</strong
http://www.emarketer.com/Reports/All/Emarketer_2000678.aspx
