Growth of the Mobile Web

If you could compare how many people visited your desktop website using a mobile phone last January versus this January, you would likely be very shocked. 

How do you find that out?  You’ll need to interpret the log files from your website or use a site analytics package like Google Analytics.  Seeing the mobile traffic that is already trying to access your site is an enlightening experience.  It will give you instant insight into the shifting habits of your site visitors. 

Why should you care? 
If you don't have a site specifically created for mobile, then their experience is likely very poor. If your current site has Flash, Java or other popular site technologies - the mobile experience will be bad.  It is about your brand experience!

Traffic from mobile devices has taken a dramatic jump over the past year.  Smartphones, better data plan pricing and available bandwidth are contributing factors to the increased activity.  Just take a look at the newest statistics regarding mobile web traffic from Quantcast. 

Web traffic from mobile devices increased 110% in North America over the past year and 148% globally, according to a new study by Quantcast.  Putting it in to perspective, this is only a small fraction of overall Web traffic (1.3% of all North American page views in December 2009). Last August Admob reported that traffic doubled within that month from iPhone users alone!




The nature of that mobile traffic is changing too – hold on – iPhone is no longer the only platform you  need to consider. The Quantcast study shows that the dominance of the iPhone is being eroded by emerging competitors like Android.  Recently page views from the Droid in North America overtook RIM’s Blackberry.  Gee, that was fast!  Apparently Droid had over 12% of the North American page views helping Google's Android operating system surpass the BlackBerry OS.

In 2010, Quantcast expects growth of the mobile web's share of page views in North America to increase a full percentage point to 2.3%. Globally, mobile's share will increase from 0.95% to over 1.8%. A host of new devices from manufacturers Motorola, HTC and BlackBerry will fuel that growth this year.

So what does this mean for your business?  You should  be prepared for mobile visitors now.  You need to build a mobile website - like the largest media companies have had for years now (for example: m.cnn.com, m.weather.com or m.espn.com).  Developing a mobile website is easy and inexpensive with mobile platforms like MoFuse.  You can do it yourself or have someone build it for you in no time.

If we had to pick our favorite geological era - it would be the Cambrian when there was a profound radical change of life on earth. The very rapid explosion of new animal and plant life on earth is a bit like what we are about to experience in the mobile era.  Diversification of a great number of organisms occurred over a very short period of time.  As we enter 2010 we are experiencing the launch of a huge number of new mobile devices.  Some centered around a phone while others are more functionally focused on reading or gaming. 

Every one of these devices will have the ability to connect to the Internet.
Get ready for your Internet based content to be seen on any of 1000’s of mobile platforms.
Hint: you’ll want to have a mobile site built and managed just so these devices can take advantage of your content.

Smart Phones on the Rise

This recent IDC Press release tells the story: Nokia, Research In Motion, Apple and Android based "converged" devices continue to rise quickly.

According to Wikipedia there is no industry standard about what exactly constitutes a smart phone.    We know one when we see one.  Truth is “Phone” will only be a slice of what this device will come to mean to the human race.  Why not a “Smart Camera” or a “superintelligent music player”?   A smart phone can do a lot and they are built very differently than the more single focused ‘feature phone’, which was really built to make phone calls on the go.   One thing we know for sure, the Smart Phone penetration is on the rise globally. 

The combination of readily available big bandwidth (3G and above) and these ‘smart’ devices make a compelling reason for people to move to the full featured device. The smart phone market will climb to 37 percent of global handset sales in 2014 with emerging markets as the key growth engine, according to a new report from Pyramid Research. Cambridge-based Pyramid estimates that smart phones will account for a 16-percent share of total handset sales in 2009.  Also everyone expects that 2010 will be the year China takes top spot for Smart Phone sales – as iPhone will enter that market.  Also from Pyramid, they forecast that Brazil, Turkey, India and Nigeria will be the fastest growing market for smart phones over the next 5 years.

But something else is going on- as smart phones rise in the market – so do a number of other  functionally focused mobile devices.  For example, this holiday season we've kicked the launch of a number of ebooks into high gear.  Like game consoles, these are single purpose mobile devices and the early success of Kindle proves we are more than willing to own a few mobile devices to do everyday things.  Nooks, Kindles, the Sony eBook or any mobile web readers all have a chance to own a piece of this rapidly advancing market.

Growth of the mobile web has reached a Cambrian-like level of diversification of devices. You’ll want to think about the state of your business content as it will most certainly be accessed by these mobile organisms.  If you develop a mobile website you will be in the best position to capture the market that are already accessing the Internet anywhere they can!  Today MoFuse optimizes your mobile content on nearly 5,000 different mobile devices worldwide including Sony Playstations, Kindle and any smart or feature phone.   We can help you win in this new era.

Oh yes- it matters very much.

It’s happening before our eyes, the mobile web is growing up.  Exactly one week ago Google announced that it was acquiring mobile advertising industry leader, AdMob.

What does this mean?

The mobile web really is (as we’ve said 100 times before) a separate and important digital medium that you can no longer ignore. Google knows that mobile devices represent the largest penetration of any technology on the planet.   There are about 1 Billion desktop computers in the world and nearly 1 Billion Automobiles, but there are 4 Billion mobile devices!  With all of that reach (and attention) somebody will make money monetizing the mobile real estate that is accessed on all of those devices. The growth of the mobile web is just beginning.

We will look back on this event as a defining moment for the industry.  

This strategic acquisition by Google sends a strong signal that the mobile web is ready for prime time.    It signals that Google understands that traffic on the mobile web will no longer be guided by the carrier's initial landing page ('on deck' as it is termed in the industry).  Google has seen a 5X mobile search growth over the past 2 years.  Usage patterns of the mobile web have evolved significantly and are proof that people will seach, find destinations and link to mobile web pages directly- the same behaviors as the desktop web.  This movement 'off deck', away from the carriers 'guiding' you to the sports, news, weather  or any sites THEY want you to see, is a key change.   With more eyeballs, going to more mobile sites on their own -   more publishers will be able to make money on mobile advertising. 

AdMob is a leader in mobile advertising and supplies superior services for serving mobile ads and equally as important, for reporting on mobile web analytics.  Ad analytics give you insight into your mobile web readers or visitors, and include data such as: how many clicked, what kind of device were they using, what carrier, where were they on the globe when they responded, etc.   Serving ads to mobile devices is more complex than on the desktop web.  There are a relative handful of device types and web browsers on the desktop, but for mobile there are nearly 5,000 different devices worldwide.

Google’s acquisition of AdMob clears up the question- Is Mobile A Separate Channel?– it is. 

They acquired this mobile ad leader so they can "bring new innovation and competition to mobile advertising, and will lead to more effective tools for creating, serving, and analyzing emerging mobile ads formats."    They see it as a new channel and you should too.

What Does This Mean To You?

Often people ask us – why can’t I just use the ads that are being served on my desktop website, or why won't my ads from the desktop show up on mobile?  Mobile is a separate channel and there is a distinct audience with a specific demographic profile that you will want to understand and address.   Why only get ad revenue from your desktop site when you can also design and host a mobile website that will give you advertising revenue for a new class of customers – your mobile audience.

It is time to make your site mobile and discover the newest channel for reaching a global audience - ready to experience mobile ads!