November 14, 2008
Survey: Downloading Lags a Major Barrier to Mobile Web Enjoyment
By Michael Dinan, TMCnet Editor
Of mobile phone users who use social networking sites on their devices, 64 percent say they would share content with contacts if it were easier to do, according to surveys from an Acton, Massachusetts-based interactive mobile media services company.
Officials at Azuki Systems also say that 69 percent of mobile phone users surveyed say that time lags in downloading or playing media on their devices ranked among their top three barriers to enjoying the mobile Web.
The company conducted its market survey of about 275 mobile phone users in September.
“Azuki’s survey uncovered that not only are mobile phone users spending greater amounts of time using their phones, but they are starting to shift from feature phones to smartphones in large numbers,” company officials say.
Recent research substantiates the claim.
As TMCnet has reported, the number of Internet browsers on smartphones is expected to grow from 130 million this year to 530 million by 2013, researchers say.
According to officials at IT market firm ABI Research, the rapid growth of the mobile Web on devices such as smartphones and cell phones has been a bright spot for the telecommunications market in 2008.
The firm’s research director, Michael Wolf, said that from the strong growth in ad-calls for ad networks such as Admob, to increases in page views for Opera Mini, it’s clear that consumers have embraced the use of the Web on mobile devices.
“The increase in awareness of the web on mobile devices – due to the iPhone (News - Alert) and new RIM models – has helped contribute to this growth, as has the continued move towards flat-rate data plans by many mobile operators,” Wolf said.
As shown in the chart at right, Azuki officials say that the great majority of mobile Web users access the Internet from their devices up to two hours per week. Yet, the company says, nearly 80 percent of consumers surveyed say they wished it were easier to access information from the Internet on their mobile phones, and an equal percentage said they wished it were easier to access rich media on their mobile phones.
Other findings include that 41 percent of mobile experts want the iPhone for their next mobile operating system. The figure is more than double the number who want the RIM BlackBerry (19 percent) and Google Android (News - Alert) (18 percent), according to Azuki’s survey.
The survey also found that nearly 70 percent of mobile users would prefer to see ads in exchange for free access to mobile content.
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Michael Dinan is a contributing editor for TMCnet, covering news in the IP communications, call center and customer relationship management industries. To read more of Michael’s articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Michael Dinan
