Mobile web access – the next frontier is here December 2, 2007

I just ran across a blog about mobile phone adoption that has some fascinating stats in it. The blog is written by Tomi Ahonen – here’s a link to two posts. Even though they were written a while ago, the information is still very relevant, probably even more relevant, an well worth the read.

Mobile the 7th Mass Media is to internet like TV is to radio

(Stats below come from this post.)

As web content migrates to the mobile internet

At the end of 2006, according to Informa’s Mobile Market Status 2007 , there were 2.7 billion mobile phone users

• three times as many mobile phones as personal computers(850 million)
  
• over a quarter of all internet access is already from mobile phones
• nearly twice as many mobile phones as TV sets (1.5 billion)
• twice as many people use messaging on a phone (SMS text messaging) as use e-mail on the web.
• more people are accessing the internet via mobile rather than PC in China, Japan and South Korea
  

By comparison with the number of mobile phones,

• there are 800 million registered automobiles
• 1.3 billion fixed landline phones

We have not even begun to know how internet access via mobile phones will impact site design. One thing’s for sure, though. It can not be avoided. The more consumer-oriented, and geographically relevant a company is (where is the closest one to me, how do I get there, what are their hours, do they have the merchandise/food/gas/service I need or want to purchase), the sooner it will become an issue.

Some pundits that cover this space are speculating that the PC will be obsolete in the next few years. I’m not ready to buy that, for a couple of simple reasons. One – real estate, and two – computing power. Mobile screens are not very big, and even if they get a bit bigger, they will never be big. If they were big, they would be….PCs. If I am on the go, having content that is relevant to being on the go is great. When I am stationary, I’d rather use a larger format, with more computing power that will enable me to see and do more things simultaneously. which leads to reason number two – the size of mobile phones will continue to limit computing and battery power. Yes it continues to improve; I’m just not buying the notion that mobile internet access will replace laptops.

The balance will continue to shift as more content is created for the mobile environment and as advertisers and marketers experiment with methods to reach the mobile market. As some point, they discover what they can do that mobile users will tolerate. Because some rate plans charge for texting and excess minutes, it will be interesting to watch this play out: will carriers change their rate plans to “all you can eat”? Will consumers revolt if they start receiving unsolicited text messages?

At some point, market equilibrium will be reached – some people will use one method or the other, some will use both.

For big consumer brands, ensuring that their information is formatted for mobile access is a no-brainer. A beautiful online “experience” complete with flash, ajax, beautiful graphics, etc- has a defined reach. Access to these sites increasingly requires broadband access. As the stats above show, mobile access has three times the reach. Brands that can create streamlined mobile-accessible, relevant content and applications will have a far greater chance of reaching their rank-and-file buyers.