A new study finds that 15.6% of all U.S. mobile users accessed the Web over their cell phones in May, making this country a leader in mobile Internet use.
For the numbers of mobile marketers who are waiting to see the U.S. channel mature into a conduit for engaging content (and ad messages), those findings should be news almost as good as today’s scheduled release of the cheaper, faster Apple iPhone 2.0.
The study, published by Nielsen Mobile, says that with 40 million of the 144 million mobile subscribers accessing data services on their handsets, the U.S. actually leads a pack of 16 countries studied in mobile Web penetration, followed by the U.K. with 12.9% of users and Italy with 11.9%.
“With highly capable devices, improving network speeds and millions of mobile users visiting individual Web sites over their phones, we believe mobile Internet reached a critical mass for mobile marketing this year,” said Nielsen Mobile Director of Insights and report author Nic Covey in a statement. “A confluence of factors will only further ignite this market rapidly this year and into 2009.”
One of those con-flowing factors should be the increasing popularity of all-you-can-eat mobile data plans, the report found. Fourteen percent of U.S. users subscribed to a flat-fee plan in Q1 2008, up from 10% the year before.
Carriers’ efforts to expand their high-speed 3G networks for faster data speeds have also had a growth effect, Nielsen found. Verizon Wireless has the largest 3G network in the U.S., having been building it since 2003. T-Mobile launched its 3G network in New York City last spring. Meanwhile, 28% of U.S. consumers have phones capable of operating at 3G speeds, which make engaging media such as mobile video much more feasible.
As for where those U.S. mobile surfers are going, the top sites last May were the usual suspects: carrier “decks” or portals, e-mail sites such as Yahoo Mail, Gmail or MSN Hotmail, searches such as Google, and news, sports and weather sites. The Weather Channel mobile site had a unique U.S. audience of 8.6 million in May, while ESPN Mobile had 6.5 million unique visitors.
But the Nielsen report forecasts that emerging mobile categories—notably social networking and mobile banking—will continue to draw more U.S. traffic as providers enhance their offerings via cell phone. Both social nets and banking sites had 5 million unique mobile U.S. visitors in May.
As for the devices they’re using, the Motorola RAZR is the most popular product line with U.S. mobile Internet users today, with 10% of the market. Europeans opt first for one of two Nokia models.
But the big game –changer may be the next version of the Apple iPhone, set to roll out today. While only 4% of U.S. mobile Internet users currently use one—making it the second handset choice after the RAZR—the iPhone is chiefly valuable because it has raised the public perception of what’s possible over the mobile Internet.
“We believe the device’s impact is amplified by the increased awareness its marketing campaign and buzz have driven,” the report said. “As a result, demand for advanced data services and more robust mobile media-focused handsets has increased.”
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