Following on the heels of the latest release of the Mobile Internet Experience Update in October, Novarra  shared several bits of important usage statistics with the mobile industry.  Each on its own is interesting, but in whole they demonstrate an undeniable trend.  First, let’s recap some of the points:

• During the Major League Baseball World Series in the US, traffic from mobile devices to baseball-related web sites tripled on game days, as compared to off days.  More…
• In the UK, the wildly popular X Factor television reality dance conpetition drove mobile web traffic spikes of an amazing 15,000% to sites with show information and community on days when the eliminations occurred.  More…
• During the holiday shopping season, mobile traffic to retailer web sites on Black Friday - the traditional start of the holiday shopping sales in the US - skyrocketed as well.  More…

Much of this growth is driven by “traditional” Web 2.0 behaviors.  As noted earlier in this blog:

• Twitter ranked as one of the fastest growing sites for mobile web page views (not SMS tweets mind you, but browser-based page views).  From the start of 2009 to mid year, Twitter experienced 3500% growth according to Novarra statistics.
• Click throughs to URL shorteners such as bit.ly and tinyurl.com were up over 1000%.  This proves that the tweets we often receive via SMS drive many people to use the web (many who are not otherwise inclined to use their phone’s browser) when they click on a link in a received tweet.  More…

These are all intances of consumers transferring PC web and other media habits to mobile. Sports, reality TV, shopping are not unique examples.  It is clear to many of us that mobile can no longer be ignored as a viable media channel.  Another important conclusion is that when individual consumers drive the choice of web sites, and not “the industry,” it is ever more important that service providers enable a quality experience across any/all sites a valuable role to be played by the mobile network.

Tags: mobile internet, mobile web user experience, usage statistics
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If Novarra’s recent Mobile Internet Experience Update and Major League Baseball World Series mobile web usage statistics are not enough to convince us that we have reached a tipping point for consumer adoption of mobile web, these stats surely will.

Consider the dramatic results from the UK’s dance competition television show “X Factor”.  On days when eliminations were announced, traffic to the show’s web site and other fan sites via mobile skyrocketed.  Blue days are “off days” while read are days that correspond to shows and elimiations when users flocked to web sites with their mobile to get updates, read news and share thoughts about the contestants.  More…

In the US, retailer web site traffic also surged on Black Friday, the traditional kick off for holiday season sales.  More…

Clearly, consumers are transferring web and media habits to mobile.  The tipping point has arrived for our industry.

Tags: mobile internet, usage statistics
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For those of us who have not consciously chosen to begin using our mobile phones as an internet terminal, our more tech-savvy friends and co-workers are introducing us to this new behavior, whether we realize, and like, it or not.  We are being caught up - or more accurately stated, helping to create - a mobile internet traffic tsunami.

This is proven by a couple recent Novarra statistics:

• Twitter ranked as one of the fastest growing sites for mobile web page views (not SMS tweets mind you, but browser-based page views).  From the start of 2009 to mid year, Twitter experienced 3500% growth according to Novarra statistics.
• Click throughs to URL shorteners such as bit.ly and tinyurl.com were up over 1000%.  This proves that the tweets we often receive via SMS drive many people to use the web (many who are not otherwise inclined to use their phone’s browser) when they click on a link in a received tweet. 

Read more from Novarra…

Tags: mobile web user experience, usage statistics
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Mobile web usage data from Novarra shows that “game day” traffic (shown blue) to a collection of baseball related web sites during the World Series surged dramatically compared to “off days” (shown gray).  The highest traffic was for Game 6 when page views nearly tripled off day levels during the final game when the New York Yankees defeated the Philadelphia Phillies and MVP Hideki Matsui drove in six of the Yankees’ seven RBIs.

This demonstrates the increasing importance of mobile internet browsing and applications for mainstream information and entertainment by American consumers.  We continue to see consumers transfer PC web and media habits to mobile as solutions, like Novarra’s Vision mobile browser and/or content transformation server, offer a quality mobile internet experience across smartphones and feature phones.

Tags: mobile internet, usage statistics
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In the most recent Mobile Internet Experience Update, Novarra compared monthly  web data usage levels for three highly available feature phones, which have very different form factors and product positioning, to understand the correlation between handset capabilities and internet usage.

	Simple clamshell with striking design - but little else in the way of features for mobile internet
	QWERTY messaging phone with keyboard and landscape screen orientation that is well suited for mobile internet page viewing
	Music/media phone with touch navigation wheel, relatively high resolution screen, expandable storage and often marketed with larger data plan for music download service

Features like ‘fit to screen’ handheld view and single click access to search, main content and login forms, as well as fast page loads and up to 90% reduction of over the air data are all benefits offered by Novarra’s mobile internet and multimedia platform and mobile browser that help drive web usage across all types of mobile phones.

Believe it or not, the least expensive clamshell owners used 20% more data than owners of the messaging phone and 10% more than the music/media phone owners, demonstrating that regardless of form factor, a quality mobile internet experience will ensure mobile browser usage.

Tags: mobile browser, mobile internet, mobile web user experience, usage statistics
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In Novarra’s Mobile Internet Experience Update, four categories of site types were analyszed:

• Social Networking & Community
• News/Information/Entertainment
• Search/Webmail/Portal
• “Mobile-relevant” (sites with content specifically targeted for mobile users, not to be confused with mobile versions of other sites)

Within each category, a sampling from the top 100 sites is presented below. 

The growth across all categories underscores the importance of offering a high quality mobile web user experience across all sites and providing consumers with choice, rather than dictating or trying to pick “the next big thing”.

Tags: mobile internet, usage statistics
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Users in all segments of Novarra’s Mobile Internet Experience Update substantially increased their average monthly data consumption between January and June 2009. 

Business Pros ended June using 79% more data per month than in January, followed by Mobile Millennials with an increase of 57%.  Connected Kids were the group with the least increase but still consumed 14% more data per month mid-year that at the start of 2009.

The increase in data usage across all segments was driven partially by a 74% increase in streamed mobile video which is quite remarkable considering the fact that this growth is from only a subset of the sample.  At the time of this report, many service providers had yet to turn on video streaming and multimedia transformation services within their Novarra Vision mobile internet and multimedia platform.

Tags: mobile internet, mobile video, usage statistics
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From January to June 2009, the count of active monthly unique users in Novarra’s Mobile Internet Experience Update sampling increased 61%, a pace that is on track for a more than doubling of mobile web users by the end of 2009. 

Business Pros, traditionally reliant upon their mobile devices for “corporate” access, showed the largest growth rate, 112%, as they increase usage of consumer oriented web content from their mobile phones.  Mobile Millennials showed just over 100% growth in monthly active users, but remain the largest single segment.  Even Frugal Fanatics, the slowest growth group, still showed double digit growth.

In developing markets, usage ramps up to levels similar to developed markets in just one quarter of the time.  These users more quickly adapt and embrace internet access via mobile when other methods are more costly or less accessible.

Tags: mobile internet, usage statistics
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It is not enough to simply publish mobile internet page views and mobile browser usage statistics.  Our customers and partners, as well as the industry, are eager to understand the insights behind the stats.  In our Mobile Internet Experience Update, we utilized the powerful Vision analytics capabilities to segment users and understand how their mobile web user experience, preferences and behaviors vary. 

These segments include:

Tags: mobile internet, usage statistics
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Novarra’s Mobile Internet Experience Update provides an ongoing look at the changing habits of various groups, from highly sophisticated technophiles to mass market users, through global usage data aggregated and extrapolated from live operator and service provider deployments.  Two thirds of US mobile users and over one billion globally have access to some form of mobile internet service based upon Novarra’s Vision mobile internet and multimedia platform and/or Vision mobile browser. The report identifies and highlights new and emerging trends as well as other aspects of mobile internet behavior and usage - all aspects of the mobile browsing experience that operators and other audiences should consider when assessing the mobile internet market.

The full Mobile Internet Experience Update is available for download (PDF).  In subsequent posts, highlights and insights will be shared.

Tags: mobile internet, usage statistics
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