The US soon to win the mobile web race
The US will soon claim first place in the mobile web race with US consumers’ appetite for mobile web surfing expected shortly to overtake current global number one, the UK. That’s according to Bango’s mobile web surfing charts.
So what’s behind this latest move? The UK has punched above it’s weight considering it only has a population of 61 million, but it’s a mature, vibrant market with a huge appetite for mobile content and services. The USA, on the otherhand, is five times as big and it’s definitely getting the mobile surfing habit. There are two main reasons why:
- “All you can eat” dataplans – There is now a great choice of data plans from all the major mobile operators in the US . The “All you can eat” plans are proving very attractive as they are affordably priced and go a long way to stimulating mobile browsing.
- The iPhone effect – Thanks to the iPhone, people now realize they can surf the web from their phone and as the majority of US phones come internet-enabled, it’s opening up the whole world of mobile browsing.
Of course, more data friendly devices featuring higher resolution screens and faster 3G networks all help!
So the big question is whether the US will continue to lead the way. The US has a large potential for growth but countries where internet access is not easily available because of poor landline infrastructure will also see growth as people find they can access the internet on their phones. Even where PC internet is widely available as in the US, browsing will shift to the mobile device, mainly because it’s just more convenient.
NBC’s Olympics mobile site generated close to 30 million page views with users spending around 6 minutes browsing the news. Although, NBC will have seen an increase in online usage, the real growth will be to their mobile site. If you’d like to find out how many visitors you’re geting on your mobile site then give Bango Mobile Analytics a try. It’s free for the first 10,000 page views per month.