Web browsing on smartphones increases

Can consumers using smartphones find, view and purchase from your website? If not, then perhaps data recently released by M:Metrics will persuade you to make this so.

by Helen Leggatt

Smartphone users are increasingly using their devices to browse the Internet. A recent study, using client software placed on a smartphone user’s phone, found that Internet browsing increased 89%, and page views by 127%, in the last year.

Classified-ad website Craigslist was the most popular among U.S. smartphone users. Why? Because it’s text-based format is easy to download, even with a weak signal, and because of its focus on local content.

According to M:Metrics’ study, American smartphone users spend almost twice as much time as their British counterparts browsing the Internet on their devices (the study excluded iPhones and Blackberry devices). In March 2008, Americans spent 4 hours, 38 minutes browsing compared with just under 2 hours, 25 minutes in the U.K.

“People are becoming increasingly engaged in the mobile medium,” said Mark Donovan, senior analyst with M:Metrics. “Consumption is quickly evolving from brief transactions, such as checking the weather or flight status, to time-intensive interaction with mobile Websites – even without an iPhone.”

Tags: mobile marketing, mobile shopping

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Is an adequate picture of the US smartphone market given when RIM and Apple are excluded from the study? (US #1 and #2 at ~40% and ~30% mkt share) Or are we to assume that there would be no difference in usage patterns across device types?

Posted by: Sten on May 28, 2008 16:56