Media Healthcheck: February 2010
February was another big month for mobile research and forecasts, with ABI Research predicting that shoppers around the world will spend $119 billion on goods and services purchased via mobile phones in 2015.
Mark Beccue, senior analyst at ABI Research, said: "Mobile online shopping is reaching critical mass.
"In the United States, mobile online shopping rose from $396 million in 2008 to $1.2 billion in 2009. While definitions of 'mass market adoption' vary, a more than threefold increase in one year indicates significant consumer interest."
IAB research unveiled at the start of the month found that mobile and online advertising can significantly increase brand awareness and purchase consideration when used together.
The study, based on a sample of 875 mobile internet users and qualitative focus groups, investigated current trends in consumer behaviour and specifically the impact of cross-media ad campaigns on a range of brand metrics.
Looking across the pond, a comScore study revealed that a total of 234 million people aged 13+ used a mobile phone in the US in December 2009.
Nearly two thirds (63.1%) of America's mobile population used text messaging in December 2009, an increase of 2.1 percentage points on the previous three months.
And 27.5% of people used internet browsers on their mobiles, up 1.5 percentage points, while 21.6% of people played games on their phones, said comScore.
Americans are spending an average of 2.7 hours on the mobile internet each day, according to research from Ruder Finn, meanwhile.
It also showed that 91% of American mobile phone users go online to socialise compared to only 79% of traditional desktop users.
However, according to research from Accenture and the GSMA, consumers want more internet connectivity on their mobile devices, according to new research from Accenture and the GSMA.
The online survey questioned 1,005 early innovator consumers in 10 countries (the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, China, India, and Brazil.
It showed that a majority of consumers would welcome a single supplier for billing of networked devices (61%), managing their networked devices (59%) and providing customer support (59%) and web access to view their network devices (56%).
One of the by-products of the rise of mobile internet has been the birth of location-based services on mobiles, and Juniper Research predicts that revenues from mobile location-based services (MLBS) and location-based apps will reach more than $12.7 billion by 2014.
