comScore » mobilegroove

In brief: A run down of some significant mobile search stats and studies in the run up to Exploring the Future of Mobile Search, an exploratory expert workshop organized by the European Commission, where MSG will give the keynote address.

It's encouraging to see a much sharper focus on mobile search and a growing realization among mobile operators, content providers and publishers/developers that there is a lot more to mobile search than the universal model we know from the online Internet. Mobile phone form factors push companies to develop new mobile search services that deliver us relevant results in tune with our intent and context. All the better if these services make use of features and functions such as voice recognition, image recognition, location-awareness and Augmented Reality.

Another development that makes search essential is the avalanche of apps and app stores, and the drive by all the players in the ecosystem to make these content and services storefronts a commercial success. Case in point: Apple's decision to snap up Siri, a voice-activated digital personal assist that takes the concept of search to a new level (allowing us to find not search!)

Regular readers will know that a high point of my year is collaborating with the Netsize team to collect the information, ideas and insights from industry authorities and +25 c-level execs that make the Netsize Guide the industry's number one reference work. This year is no exception. To the contrary, I'm proud to report the Netsize Guide 2010 – the 9th Edition of the Netsize almanac– is widely regarded as the best edition ever (!).

One reason for the heightened interest could be the sharp focus on the future of mobile and mobility. The Netsize Guide, aptly titled Mobile Renaissance, pushes the boundaries and examines the

TOUCHSCREEN DEVICE SALES IN THE U.S. ROSE 159 PERCENT OVER THE PAST YEAR, says Comscore, with the growth outpacing that of smartphone sales, which rose “just” 63 percent. The company says there were about 23.8 million touchscreen devices in use in the US at the end of August, and about 33.8 million smartphones.

MORE THAN 1.5 BILLION APPS HAVE BEEN DOWNLOADED FROM APPLE'S APP STORE, the company said this week. iPhone and iPod Touch users have racked up the downloads in just a year, with the store now holding over 65,000 applications (though that figure has been questioned by some, as it's inflated by so-called "bulk apps"). Source Meanwhile, GetJar, which runs an independent, multi-platform app download site, says it, too, has seen more than 1.5 billion downloads of the 50,000 apps it carries. It says the five most popular apps are Opera Mini; three mobile social networking apps, eBuddy, Nimbuzz and mig33; and Google Maps. Source The Bottom Line: The attraction of app downloads rolls on, and not just for iPhone users. One question, though: how many of those 1.5 billion apps on iPhones get actively used? Still, in some sense, it's not that important. The big download figures show what mobile users will do when the browsing, download and installation process is quick and simple - something that can't be said about many previous attempts at app stores on other platforms. *** INSIGHTS ON MOBILE DATA USAGE. Peggy has passed over some stats from Comscore from the Open Mobile Summit, a top-notch conference and networking opportunity that MSearchGroove is proud to sponsor as a media partner. In fact, MSG will be a sponsor and speaker at the next Open Mobile Summit in November in San Francisco - but more about that later. The figures show some interesting points about mobile media usage, including that a higher percentage of US mobile users are mobile media users (meaning they use browsers or apps, or download media) than Europeans, at 35 percent to 28 percent.

QUARTER OF GLOBAL USERS ACCESS MOBILE INTERNET VIA NOVARRA PLATFORM. Novarra announced its Mobile Internet Experience Update with the news that two thirds of U.S. mobile phone users and one quarter of all global users have access to some form of mobile Internet service via the Novarra platform today. A benchmark report gives a broad overview of how consumers access and use the internet via mobile phones with Novarra's Vision browser and mobile Internet platform. Among the overall findings:

• Devices don't' matter (much): Users with standard feature phones will use the Web as much or even more than a smartphone user if the mobile Internet experience is good
• There is a 'long tail' in the mobile Internet: The top website typically accounts for 5 percent of total mobile page views. The number two site accounts for less than 1 percent of traffic. And the top 500 sites account for only 25-30 percent of all page views
• Sessions vary: 40 percent of mobile internet sessions are under five minutes and 40 percent are over 15 minutes

The report further groups mobile users into 'tribes' based on their distinctive user profiles. These are:

• The Business Pro - Dependent on their mobile to be more productive and to handle all their communications
• The Mobile Millennial - Early adopters and young adults with disposable income
• The Connected Kid - Children and teenagers who have grown up with technology from a young age
• Frugal Fanatics utilise handset customisation services more than twice as much as any other group
• Connected Kids have far more page views relative to sessions than any other group, indicating they tend to surf more for entertainment purposes
• Source

VODAFONE OPENS: On Tuesday Vodafone announced that it will stimulate a new generation of mobile Internet applications by providing Internet service developers with a single point of access to their global customer base. With direct access to Vodafone's billing system and controlled access to other network capabilities such as location awareness, content partners will be able to reach all customers on mobile devices. Conducted through the global Joint Innovation Lab (JIL), which also includes Verizon Wireless, the initiative is designed to help developers create widgets for an audience of up to one billion customers across the four JIL partner networks. This has been widely heralded as Vodafone's venture into the app store market. Only after the APIs are released to developers will it be any easier to tell if Vodafone has a good chance of emulating the success of Apple's original. (Source) The bottom line: Betavine, Vodafone's open source developer community will also need to play a key role in feeding out information and supporting developers. *** VODAFONE MOBILE AD RESULTS: Vodafone announced on Wednesday that it had fulfilled its ambition to open up mobile advertising services to 18 operating company markets in the last 18 months. It says strong revenue growth from mobile advertising services was experienced during 2008/9, and it plans to continue the roll out, expanding the type of mobile advertising services and their reach. Over the last year Vodafone Marketing Solutions has run over 2000 campaigns across its global footprint for hundreds of global brands. These brands are enjoying considerable success with mobile banner campaigns and newer mobile advertising formats such as branded content, sponsored alerts, opt-in push messaging and advertising on service based text message, according to Vodafone. Vodafone says it will continue to invest in its advertising offering over the coming year by adding to its global reach through affiliates and partners "including operators such as Mobilkom, Proximus, Vodacom, and China Mobile" and by seeking to extend the number, type and effectiveness of its advertising service portfolio. (Source) The bottom line: These developments in mobile advertising can only be good for a still nascent, yet evidently burgeoning market with many new technologies to explore. As the technologies and partnerships develop, together with mobile Internet usage and penetration of sophisticated handsets, so will the numbers exposed to mobile advertising. *** ORANGE TRAFFIC: Orange revealed record mobile Internet traffic