July 31, 2009
Report: More College Students Access Mobile Internet for Social Networking
By Jyothi Shanbhag, TMCnet Contributor
Cambridge, Mass.-based Bitstream, the company that produces the BOLT mobile Web browser, reportedly found that more than half of college students with mobile phones use the mobile Internet, but mainly for social networking and entertainment, not scholastic pursuits.
According to its study of college students and their use of mobile phones, Bitstream’s (News - Alert) study also found that 45 percent of the students in colleges aren’t yet using the mobile Internet, even though their phones are likely capable of Internet access.
Christine Arrington, senior analyst with Acacia Research (News - Alert) Group, a company that studies trends in the mobile media market, said there are three key contributing factors for why college students may not use the mobile Internet for productivity purposes: cost, awareness, and utility.
Arrington said that cost is always an issue with college students, and adding a data plan to their wireless service is likely contributing to keeping adoption low. She said that the main factor is probably awareness as students who do not manage their own service may not be aware that they have Internet availability on their phones, even if someone else, like a parent, is already paying for the service.
Though there are many mobile companion sites that cell phones can access, most of them including half of the top 20 most popular, don’t work well on mobile phones.
“Web sites should do a better job of making their mobile versions just as functional as the main sites and easy to use on the phone,” said David Mayman, a senior at California’s University of the Pacific in a statement.
Mayman said he uses his phone daily to browse the Web for entertainment and social networking.
Bitstream CEO Anna Chagnon said that the BOLT mobile browser that Bitstream produces displays Web sites the same way they are seen on a computer, yet with navigation and magnification tools that make visiting them easier on the mobile phone’s smaller form factor.
“A great many advances in mobile technology have tremendously improved how the Internet can be used on mobile phones,” Chagnon said in a statement.
Phones have bigger screens, faster network access, better keypads and now the ability view web sites the way their designers intended, Chagnon said.
Jyothi Shanbhag is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Jyothi's articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Amy Tierney
