Excerpts from Tomi Ahonen talk at the Mobile Web Africa conference in Johannesburg last Thursday via TechCentral.
-- Mobile is a far speedier way to reach consumers than other digital channels. A study conducted in New Zealand found that the average e-mail is read 48 hours after it is sent, while the average SMS is read in four minutes. “SMS is literally 720 times faster than e-mail in message-opening throughput.”
-- Also, mobile device users are addicted to their devices. Nokia reported at MindTrek 2010 that the average person looks at their phone 150 times a day, or once every six-and-a-half minutes of every waking hour.
-- In Africa, it’s 82 times a day, according to Young and Rubicam in its Mobile Mania Report published in April 2011 — thus, even, in Africa mobile users check their devices on average every 12 minutes.
-- “US jewellers Tiffany’s e-commerce website wasn’t optimised for mobile. After optimising it, sales grew 125% from the website,” says Ahonen. He says this proves there isn’t going to be “one Internet”.
-- In China mobile newspapers have converted 39% of their readers to pay for MMS news headlines. “’Tomorrow’s headlines today’ is the selling point.” China Mobile has 40m paying users on SMS- and MMS-based twice-daily headline services of branded newspapers’ headlines.
-- "Mobile is the fastest growing industry ever,” Ahonen adds. “It went from naught to $1 trillion in 2010, and is set to double by 2020.”
TheNetWeb on M-Pesa in Africa and how the heads of Visa, MasterCard and American Express could learn from it.
Launched as a pilot project in March 2007 (with help from a Vodafone investment and aid from the Danish government), M-Pesa already has more than 15 million users, 80% of Safaricom’s customers. The company now controls 75% of Kenya’s mobile phone market.
“The funds transferred by M-Pesa are equal to 25% of the country’s GNP,” said Sitoyo Lopokoiyit, an economist at the company. It’s even more remarkable when you consider that most of the transactions are for fifty cents (U.S.) or less.
Kenyans use the service today to pay for water and electric and cable bills, as well as for their children’s schools. They can use it to make purchases at certain stores, even mom-and-pop shops.
They can withdraw or deposit their money through a network of more than 2,000 sales points throughout the country, where they can buy the scratch cards containing the codes needed to fill their account.
“M-Pesa makes people’s lives easier and helps them save money while traveling,” Waceke Mbugua, director of marketing and communication at Sararicom, explained.
Although more than half of its 845 million members log into Facebook on a mobile device, the company has not yet found a way to make real money from that use. The New York Times reports.
Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook plan to experiment with mobile advertising, including inserting so-called sponsored stories into users' update streams.
Facebook is not the only company struggling to translate the success of its Web site to mobile devices, where screen space is at a premium and people have little patience for clutter or slow loading times. It is a problem that plagues companies as diverse as news publishers and the streaming radio service Pandora, and it is likely to loom larger. There were more global shipments of smartphones than of personal computers in 2011, according to a recent report from Canalys, a research firm.
... Overall spending on mobile advertising in the United States is expected to reach $2.6 billion this year, up 80 percent from $1.45 billion in 2011, according to research by eMarketer.
Statistics from last year suggested that more than 1.1 million (less than 5 percent) of North Korea owned a fixed-line telephone, which had traditionally been more available than mobile, but the increasingly popularity of mobile means it will likely be dominant soon. However, as a report from The Nautilus Institute noted, the cost of devices and tariffs remain beyond the reach of many North Koreans. TheNextWeb reports.
While mobile may have hit seven figures in the communist country, North Korean citizens are currently banned from using mobile phones during the period of mourning following former leader Kim Jong-il’s death. Anyone flouting the ban will be punished like a “war criminal”, according to comments reportedly made by the ruling Workers Party.
A study of 30,000 U.S. mobile subscribers has found Samsung to be the top handset manufacturer overall with 25.3 percent market share. Google Android strengthened its lead in the smartphone market to reach 47.3 percent market share. [via Cellular News]
Mobile content usage spanning everything from downloading apps to browser and social network usage continues to escalate, but nothing is taking off quite like texting. VentureBeat reports.
Nearly 75 percent of all U.S. mobile subscribers now send text messages, according to new data from analytics firm comScore.
The data, gathered from a monthly online survey of 30,000 mobile subscribers ages 13 and up, reflects an ongoing shift in the changing behaviors of the more than 234 million American mobile consumers. Mobile users continue to show an increased propensity to consume content, download apps, listen to music, and play games on their devices.
New data from Google released exclusively to Ad Age shows that more consumers in key global markets have Internet-capable mobile devices than computers.
The London Olympic and Paralympic Games are likely to require up to 20,000 separate wireless frequency assignments, according to the communications regulator Ofcom, nearly double the amount of licences that it granted for the city over the course of last year.
Whether it's a business or personal interaction, multiple studies show that as much as 50-65 percent of the communication is nonverbal. That means that people who are addicted to text messaging and email may be sending only half the message, and receivers often misinterpret even that half. The Huffington Post reports.
Yet the use of text messaging for business purposes continues to grow, in concert with more of Gen-Y entering the workplace, and a continuing increase in the global rate of texting by everyone. This total rate for 2011 has been estimated at 7 trillion, or nearly 225,000 text messages sent every second, according to the Quora statistics website.
But are these text messages an efficient and appropriate business tool? Where body language is part of the message, it definitely is not.
The iPhone 4S's Siri voice assistant has led to a massive increase in mobile data consumption, according to a study from telecom network technology firm Arieso, reports Information Week.
Aresio's research shows that owners of the iPhone 4S are using twice as much data as owners of the iPhone 4, and three times as much data as owners of the iPhone 3G.
By way of comparison, the owners of the iPhone 4 use 1.6 times as much data as owners of the iPhone 3G, and owners of the iPad 2 use about 2.5 times more data than the iPhone 3G.
Forbes on the issue of the decline in global text-messaging volumes.
Ten years ago, text-messaging was hitting its stride – the global SMS volume topped 30 Billion a month and annual growth rate was running comfortably into triple digits.
Back in 2001, the US consumers were lagging far behind their European and Asian peers. Merely 3 Billion text messages were sent in the United States in 2001 vs. more than 70 Billion text Messages in the European Union.
Fast forward to 2011 and the situation is radically different. American consumers are now sending more than 600 messages per month, whereas Asian SMS powerhouses have fallen behind. Nordic countries are lagging dramatically, at around 150 SMS/month level.
... Globally, SMS volume was still growing at 40% in 2010 and 2011 volume growth is likely to top 30%. This growth is fueled by major emerging markets such as China, India and Brazil. What is notable here is that these current drivers of SMS growth are markets where the transition from 2G to 3G standards was delayed.
It is quite possible that American text-messaging trends will flip from growth to decline quite abruptly sometime over the next 12-24 months. High smartphone market penetration, high levels of Facebook/Twitter usage and early adaption of new messaging applications are the three factors that seem to render US operators particularly vulnerable to the trend that are already visible in many other advanced telecom markets.
According to the Mail Online, Brits waste £134m ($207m) of electricity a year by overcharging mobile phones and laptops.
One in five Britons leave their devices plugged in once the battery is full because they are scared of running out of power when they leave the house.
But ten per cent admit they are just 'too lazy' to pull the plug even though it continues to costs them money.
Overcharging batteries reduces their lifespan and increases household electricity bills by an average £60 per year.
But a quarter of us wrongly assume constantly charging our gadgets keeps them working properly.
Another article, this time from The Local, Sweden's News in English - explaining that sending best wishes by Text Message for Xmas or New Year's Eve is passé.
The big text message explosion is over. People use Facebook instead," said Erik Hörnefelt of mobile phone operator Tre to news agency TT. The accessibility of social media through mobile phones are believed to be behind the drop in usage.
Although Sweden’s four major telecom operators have analysed their figures in very different ways, it seems clear that many Swedes are now choosing social media rather than texting with their mobile phones to communicate and send greetings.
Telecom company Tele2 reported 30.7 million text messages being sent on New Year's Eve, which is 4 million less than last year, while Telia users at 28.4 million sent 1.2 million fewer messages than last year between 6 am on New Year's Eve and 24 hours forward.
According to Forbes and The New York Times, there was a substantial drop in text messages sent over Christmas Eve in many countries.
The fading allure of text messaging is most likely tied to the rise of alternative services like Facebook, Twitter, BlackBerry Messenger and iMessage, which allow customers to send messages free using a cellphone’s Internet connection, analysts say.
I think there is another reason that goes beyond the cost factor, sending a text message for Xmas or New Year's Eve is no longer perceived as a novelty or thoughtful gesture. Over the years we have received too many and it has turned into an annoyance.
At some point over the Christmas holiday, the number of mobile users of the Facebook website surpassed the 300 million mark, Enders Analysis analyst, Benedict Evans has noted, citing Facebook data.
Evans notes that 70% of mobile users and 30% of all users now use apps to access Facebook.
The overwhelming impression from looking through the figures in the Pew Global Attitude’s Digital Communication Survey is how widespread and similar cellphone use is in countries across the world. It appears to be age and level of education that have the biggest influence on how you use the cellphone, which is likely to be in your pocket. The WSJ reports.
Texting is widespread in both wealthy nations and the developing world. In fact, it is most common among cell phone owners in two of the poorest nations surveyed: Indonesia and Kenya.
The survey shows that people who own cellphones use them in similar ways.
The “teardown” graphic below, based on data from iSuppli, a market-research firm, shows who makes what inside the iPhone, and how much the various bits cost. Samsung turns out to be a particularly important supplier. The Economist via @Jan Chipchase
A major milestone has been hit according to TomiAhonen Consulting, the primary use of our mobile device worldwide is no longer voice calls, but text messaging.
... Ofcom surveyed 5,636 consumers in six major countries on three continents and part of the usage survey were questions 'do you use SMS on your mobile phone' and 'do you use voice calls on your mobile phone'. And for the first time we have solid comparable measurements.
The countries are all in the 'Industrialized World' and are Australia, France, Germany, Italy, the UK and the USA. They found SMS usage levels from a low of 64% in the USA to a high of 86% in Australia. They also found voice calls ranging from a low of 68% in Italy to a high of 80% in Germany. The population-weighed average of the six countries gives an average SMS usage level of 71.52% for SMS, vs 71.48% for voice calls.
... So, its time to celebrate. The mobile PHONE is dead, long live Mobile! Not only is the primary need of a mobile today for most people SMS text messaging, rather than voice calls, but now, as of December 2011, in terms of total mobile users worldwide, that transition has also now happened.
Read full article to understand how this happened.
Numbers that illustrate just how eventful a year it was. By PaidContent.
-- 324 million: The number of smartphones sold worldwide through three quarters of 2011 (according to Gartner), and feel free to tack on another 120 million or so to account for the fourth quarter. That’s a 63 percent increase compared to the same period in 2010.
-- 194 percent: The growth in Android smartphones worldwide from the third quarter of 2010 to the same period this year.
-- 33.62 billion: The market value shed by Research in Motion during 2011.
India has 850 million mobile phone subscribers and 100m internet users. See more startling stats from India. Traki.in via @mobileactive and http://twitter.com/#!/mobileactive.
Mobile phones have taken a leap in technology in the past few years. One of the simplest features on a mobile phone everyone loves to customize is the ringtone. Today, you can make your own at no cost. So why is the industry still booming?
Teenagers with itchy typing fingers are shooting out text messages more than any other demographic in the United States, and as a result they’re talking on the phone a lot less, too, according to a survey by Nielsen, the media research firm. Bits reports.
Nielsen calls this a “mobile data tsunami.” Overall data use among teenagers has tripled in the last year, according to Nielsen, with teenage girls sending 40 percent more text messages than boys — an average of 3,952 text messages a month, vs. 2,815 text messages a month, according to the study.
As a result, voice use has declined the most among teenagers, from an average of 685 minutes to 572 minutes per month, Nielsen said.
By the end of 2011, 6.05 million US households will depend on a wireless or mobile platform (including 3G or 4G) as their only means of accessing the internet, according to research just published by the Strategy Analytics Service Provider Strategies program.
This represents 6.9% of total US broadband connections -- and a 430,000 net increase over 2010 levels.
The Social Change Impact Report: Global Survey was commissioned by Walden University and conducted online by Harris Interactive in September 2011. The Global Survey includes the perspectives of more than 12,000 adults in Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Great Britain, India, Japan, Mexico, Spain and the United States and describes their perceptions on the importance of social change, the top issues in their country and the future of social change. TechJournal reports via @mobileactive.
According to the global survey, in many countries, men are more likely than women to use mobile devices to text messages related to a positive social change issue, specifically in Mexico (23% vs. 16% of women), the United States (7% vs. 4%), France(7% vs. 1%), Japan (5% vs. 2%) and Germany (4% vs. 1%).
... Texting to engage in social change is particularly common in India (38% of 18–25-year-olds).
According to digital measurement firm eMarketer, the time consumers spend on mobile devices has surpasses that of print media for the first time ever, following research in 2010 that pegged the two neck and neck at 50 percent each. Mobile Marketing Watch reports via @grigs.
Time spent on mobile devices is now an average of 65 minutes a day, compared to 44 minutes a day for print (magazines and newspapers combined).
Time on the internet was 2 hours and 47 minutes (an increase of 12 minutes from 2010), but TV still dominates with an average of 4 hours and 34 minutes.
The government says that 3,092 people died last year in "distraction-affected" crashes, a newly refined measurement meant to tally the effect of texting, phoning or simply answering a call while driving.
According to the FT via Slashgear, Nokia has hired Goldman Sachs to oversee the sale of Vertu, an independently run division of the Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia, that designs and manufactures luxury mobile phones
Vertu is estimated to be generating in the area of $268 million to $402 million yearly and is sold in over 60 countries — with the biggest markets of the brand in the Middle East, Russia, and Asia.
According to Wikipedia, the most expensive model it has ever made is the Signature Cobra, at $333,000; the most expensive regular model is the Signature Diamond at $86,000. Prices start at £55,000 for the Constellation model
Since the Vertu brand lacks smartphones, the big draw is the devices that are made from precious metals and often have gemstones embedded. The phones also have a concierge service that the user can press a button for and the service will make reservations of all sorts. Vertu has been rumored to be working on a smartphone.
According to China Daily, on Apple's iOS platform, more than 20 percent of game software in use in China is copycat versions of the originals. On phones with the Android operating system, the rate is nearly 40 percent.
There are two trends that are hindering the development of mobile phone games," said Hong Tao, the founder of the Shenzhen-based game developer Taole Technology. "The first is like group purchasing, with a lot of companies flocking together to develop very similar games.
"The second is piracy," he said. "No matter who has designed a new mobile phone game, and no matter if it is interesting or not, it can be found on the Internet for free download."
Excerpts from Tomi Ahonen talk at the Mobile Web Africa conference in Johannesburg last Thursday via 
-- Mobile is a far speedier way to reach consumers than other digital channels. A study conducted in New Zealand found that the average e-mail is read 48 hours after it is sent, while the average SMS is read in four minutes. “SMS is literally 720 times faster than e-mail in message-opening throughput.”
Statistics from last year suggested that more than 1.1 million (less than 5 percent) of North Korea owned a fixed-line telephone, which had traditionally been more available than mobile, but the increasingly popularity of mobile means it will likely be dominant soon. However, as a report from The Nautilus Institute noted, the cost of devices and tariffs remain beyond the reach of many North Koreans. 
The iPhone 4S's Siri voice assistant has led to a massive increase in mobile data consumption, according to a study from telecom network technology firm Arieso, reports 
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