03/18/2008, 4:05pm, EDT
Tuesday, March 18th
iPhone users more likely to access rich content
M:Metrics, a mobile metrics research group, has found the iPhone to be the great game-changer for the wireless industry, saying that it effectively lives up to the hype surrounding the device. Mark Donovan, senior analyst for M:Metrics, said that the iPhone is "compelling consumers to interact with the mobile web," citing "off-the-charts" usage for tasks including text messaging and mobile video. The firm's figures show that 85-percent of all iPhone users access news and other remote information during January.
Among the figures discovered were 30.9-percent of iPhone users watching mobile TV or video, contrasting the industry average of 4.6-percent, and doubling that of smartphones. 49.7-percent of users would access social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, or over 12 times the market average. Facebook, for example, was accessed by 20-percent of iPhone users, whereas other devices showed a 1.5-percent access rate.
"This data indicates that the iPhone’s widgets are and effective means to drive mobile content consumption," said Donovan. "Two featured widgets, YouTube and Google Maps are extremely popular among iPhone users: 30.4 percent accessed YouTube and 36 percent used Google Maps. In comparison, only one percent of all mobile subscribers accessed YouTube and 2.6 percent checked out Google Maps."
M:Metrics also found that 74.1-percent of all iPhone users take advantage of the iPod music functionality, contrasting a 6.7-percent market average. 84-percent of iPhone owners who use a separate MP3 player said that they use an iPod.
The study revealed that the central demographic composition of iPhone users was similar to that of smartphones, typically owned by males, aged 25 to 34, who earn over $100,000, and have a college degree.
"While the demographics of iPhone users are very similar to all smartphone owners, the iPhone is outpacing other smartphones in driving mobile content consumption by a significant margin," said Donovan. "In addition to the attributes of the device itself, another important factor to consider is the fact that all iPhones on AT&T are attached to an unlimited data plan. Our data shows that once the fear of surprise data charges is eliminated, mobile content consumption increases dramatically, regardless of device."
Filed under: iPhone, Apple, industry
Other story tags: video, wireless, mobile, web, text messaging
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Apple does not need flash when they are having no problem getting everyone who offers video content to start offering the same content in video formats that already exist on the iPhone.
Why should Apple try to make the iPhone support EVERYTHING in a mediocre way as opposed to letting it support awesome video and animation in just a few formats?
There are way too many formats out there and Apple assisting in forcing the market into only a few is better for everyone.
Flash sucks and I do not like it even on a regular computer more less on my iPhone.
Quicktime and its formats are finally winning over and it is good for the mobile industry and consumers since it is the superior format and works best on mobile devices.
But what's this crap about 'off the charts' text messaging? Last I've seen, text messaging was already off the charts without Apple and the iPhone.
Not at all. I'm saying they should stop adding OLD PROPRIETARY stuff. They can keep adding new, open stuff (like the recent upgrade to Safari and it's support for web standards).
Apple was first to ditch the floppy drive. When is the last time you used one? They were first to make USB a standard port. How long did PCs cling to serial ports, and what do they use today (answer: USB)? Who was first to include networking, CD drives (not sure about that one)?
I'd say Apple has a pretty good track record of know where things are going and/or should go. Encouraging open standards (ie, H.264) over proprietary ones (Flash) is a good thing.