Mobile email opens rise 32% in first half of 2012

Mobile email opens rose to 36% during the first half of 2012, reports Knotice, a 32% increase over the 27% open rate reported in the second half of 2011.

iOS devices make up the majority of mobile email activity. Knotice reveals that the iPhone and iPad together account for more than 29% of mobile email opens, compared to just over 6% for Android devices. Together, iOS and Android, the two dominant mobile operating systems in the U.S., account for 99.19% of all mobile email opens.

In their report, Knotice breaks down mobile devices into two distinct categories: "phones" and "tablets." They found that email opens occurring on mobile phones continue to outpace those occurring on tablets by roughly 3 to 1, with mobile phones representing 25.85% of all email opens and tablets 10.16%.

Knotice forecasts that the share of mobile opens will exceed 50% for most marketers within the next 6 to 12 months.

According to the report (.pdf), "If your brand has not yet reached the tipping point in mobile email engagement, it will soon. How your email subscribers view and consume email content has fundamentally changed within the past few years. Every marketer will have to embrace the mobile-majority audience or risk continued declines in click and conversion metrics."

Tags: Android, email marketing, iOS, mobile marketing, mobile operating system, smartphone