India - The Second Largest Consumer of Mobile Internet

A recent report by Google says that India is the second largest consumer of mobile internet in the world today. The report says that more than 14 billion mobile web page views were generated in the month of February 2010. India accounted for 5.9% of these page views. The U.S., being the largest consumer of mobile internet, accounted for more than 50% of page views in February.

India has managed to edge past its closest competitor China in terms of mobile data usage. Its burgeoning mobile user population (currently more than 500 million mobile phone users) is one of the main reasons why it has managed to topple China and rise to the second position. Another reason could be the recent fallout between Google and the Chinese government, which has weakened Google’s presence in China considerably. Given the fact that this report only considers countries where Google has a strong presence, it is not very surprising that India is ahead of China in terms of mobile internet usage.

An important fact to be mentioned here is that though India has more than 500 million mobile users, only about 25 million users use the paid data services offered by network operators. Google India, however, predicts that this number could rise to 100 million by the end of 2010.

An interesting fact that the report has mentioned is that most Indian mobile users use reasonably priced low end handsets like Nokia 5130 Express Music and Nokia 3110c. In stark contrast, mobile users in the U.S. use high end handsets like the iPhone for mobile internet purposes. This situation, however, is expected to change soon thanks to the proliferation of high end devices in the Indian market lately. As more and more people turn their attention toward high end phones, the number of mobile internet users in India is expected to rise steadily in the coming years.

Categories: Mobile Web.

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Mobile applications for Google Android phone a hit among users - says Google

Here is some happy news from the Google camp. The mobile applications for the recently released Android phone – T-Mobile G1 – are a hit among consumers.

Google executives have stated that on an average, a T-Mobile G1 user downloads 14 mobile applications. There are around 200 mobile apps available in the Android Marketplace right now and almost all of them have been well received by mobile users. Google is very happy with how things have gone with the Android phone.

As of now, the mobile apps in Android Marketplace are free. However, Google is planning to let developers charge for their apps soon. Once it happens, 70% of the revenue generated will to go the developers, a small percentage of the revenue will be used to cover the transaction charges, and the rest of the amount will go to the mobile operators. None of the mobile operators has raised any questions about this revenue sharing model so far, so we can safely assume that they are fine with this arrangement.

Google is also happy about the use of mobile data on the T-Mobile G1. Consumers have been very active so far and use various Google services like the search facility and Google Maps and a variety of third party services as well. Google has stated, without revealing the actual numbers, that there has been a ‘huge spike’ in consumer activity in the last month or so.

So, things are hunky-dory at the moment for Google. It will be interesting to see how consumers react once developers start charging for the software. What do you say?

Categories: Google, All things mobile phones.

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Mobile advertisers to target the Hispanic community?

The latest report from comScore discusses the prospects of mobile advertising in the Hispanic mobile user community. Not surprisingly, the predictions are very optimistic.

Hispanics and Latin Americans have always been active mobile users and it gets reflected on the fact that they over-index in mobile data and mobile advertising consumption. Also, a significant number of Hispanics and Latin Americans do not have access to the PC or the internet, but have a mobile connection. So, not surprisingly, when it comes to mobile content consumption, Hispanics are way ahead of the market average. This makes mobile marketing the perfect option for businesses to target the Hispanic and the Latin American community. Now, let us take a look at some numbers from the report.

1. Over 70% of Hispanic mobile users regularly download mobile content while the market average is only around 48%.

2. Over 40% of Hispanic mobile users can recall seeing ads on their mobile phone while the market average is only 30%.

3. Over 22% of Hispanic mobile users responded to mobile ads while the market average is only around 13%.

Based on this data, we can safely assume that the Hispanic market could be one of the most exciting markets for mobile advertisers. Already, mobile marketing companies like Hipcricket, Latin-Pak, Ansible Mobile, Vibes Media, and Univision Movil have started targeting the Hispanic mobile user community specifically and as the community grows stronger, we can expect a lot more companies to enter the market as well.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

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On why mobile web is the next big thing

Sometimes, people ask me why I get excited about the future of mobile web. Well; what do I tell them? Just check this out.

There are 3.3 billion mobile users in the world today as opposed to 1.5 billion TV users and 1.1 billion PC users.

In Japan, only 30% of use their PC to access the internet. The rest, a whopping 70%, use their mobile phones to access the internet. In other words, mobile browsing is the thing in Japan now.

In South Africa, mobile data plans are very cheap and this encourages people to use their mobile phone to access the internet. In fact, South Africa is one of the biggest markets for mobile web in the world.

Click through rates in mobile advertising are roughly 10 times more than the click through rates of traditional advertising. This will encourage mobile advertisers tremendously to join hands with carriers and offer ad funded mobile content via mobile web to people.

Any other doubts?

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones, Mobile Web.

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Google has its eyes on TV white space

After advocating open access in 700 MHz spectrum, Google has now set its eyes on TV white space – the empty spaces between television broadcasting frequencies which act as buffer zones. The reason – Google thinks the space could be used for mobile internet.

Earlier this week, Google sent its pitch to the Federal Communications Commission regarding this issue. Google believes that TV white space is the solution to provide high-speed wireless broadband services across the country.

It further went on to add that by using TV white space, it could provide very high-speed mobile data transfers which will be immensely useful for mobile users. In fact, Google says it could provide a mind-boggling “gigabytes per second” speed by using the TV white space. Also, it could pave the way for low cost broadband services all over the country, according to Google.

To prevent television broadcasts and wireless microphones which depend on TV white space from interfering, Google will use its spectrum sensing technology.

Most importantly, this will make things easier for Android based mobile phones. As of now, around 30 companies are working on mobile phones that can support Android platform. If Google could get TV white space in its kitty, it will make the future of Google Android even brighter.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, Google, All things mobile phones.

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