More Than 1,000 Products Advertised via Mobile Content at the End of 2010
A wealth of information about the mobile realm was recently unveiled by comScore in its “2010 Mobile Year in Review” report. Among the highlights was the finding that mobile advertising is on growing at a healthy pace and that nearly half of all mobile subscribers in the U.S. were mobile media users in 2010.
According to comScore, nearly 47 percent of mobile subscribers in the U.S. were mobile media users in December 2010, meaning they browsed the mobile Web, accessed applications, downloaded content or accessed the mobile Internet via SMS. This marked an increase of 7.6 percentage points from the previous year. This rapid growth is attributed to “the growth in smartphone adoption, 3G/4G device ownership and the increasing ubiquity of unlimited data plans, all of which facilitate the consumption of mobile media.”
The report also showed that from December 2009 to December 2010, the percentage of 3G/4G subscribers in the U.S. rose 8.4 points to 51 percent. During this same time span, the percentage of unlimited data plan subscribers rose 7.7 points to 29 percent, while the percentage of smart-phone owners rose 10.2 points to 27 percent.
Forty-eight percent of U.S. phone owners are able to browse the full Web through their mobile handsets, while 61 percent of EU5 (UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain) phone owners can do the same.
The Apple iPhone 3GS was the top acquired phone in the U.S. in 2010, followed by the Apple iPhone 4, the BlackBerry Curve 8530, the LG – Cosmos and the Motorola – Droid.
Network quality was the top purchase consideration for consumers in the U.S. when shopping for a mobile device, followed by the overall cost of monthly service, the price of the phone (after rebates/incentives), the cost of the data plan and the brand name of the operator.
For smart-phone owners, the phone OS was of significant consideration, followed by the selection of apps, music/video capabilities, the brand name of the phone and social networking features.
The study also found that 36 percent of U.S. mobile users used their mobile browsers in December, up 9 percentage points from the previous year. Meanwhile, 34 percent used a non-native game applications, up 8 percentage points from the previous year.
Social networking was the fastest growing mobile category among U.S. subscribers, reaching 57.9 million mobile users in December, up 56 percent from the same time in the previous year. Classifieds (up 55 percent), online retail (up 53 percent), general reference (up 47 percent), maps (up 46 percent), shopping guides (up 46 percent), restaurant information (up 45 percent), weather (up 45 percent), auction sites (up 45 percent) and personal e-mail (up 39 percent) were also among the fastest growing mobile categories in 2010.
“Although mobile advertising is still in its infancy compared to the PC Internet environment, advertising across mobile content is continuing to grow as more brands are recognizing the vast reach of this platform,” noted comScore in the report. “When looking at the number of products advertised across the mobile landscape, the number of products is growing in step with the number of people using their mobile browser.”
The report notes that more than 1,000 products were advertised via mobile content in September 2010, up almost 150 percent from two years ago.
“This represents the first stage in the maturation of the mobile advertising industry, but there is a need for consistent metrics and simplified trading exchanges to accelerate this growth. The fragmented nature of mobile creates a challenging environment for the uniform deployment of ads and their measurement across platforms, devices and technologies. For mobile advertising to ramp up to its full potential, the industry must be armed with consistent metrics that advertisers and publishers can agree on to create a robust mobile ad economy.”
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