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10.25.06
EU More Likely To Access Mobile Web
 By
Jason Lee Miller
Almost three-quarters of Americans who access the Internet via mobile phones do so by using one of the major online portals such as Google, Yahoo! or MSN, according to comScore. Percentage-wise, fewer Americans than Europeans are accessing the mobile Web
at all.
Though the U.S. has five times the number of mobile Internet users than the UK, the percentage of Americans accessing it is 19 percent, compared to Britain's 24 percent. Germany and Italy have the highest percentage of the population surfing on the go with 34 percent.
In all six countries measured by comScore, the most likely mobile user was a man (55 percent), using a Motorola in the States, a Nokia in Europe. In fact, half of Italy belongs to Nokia. A quarter of Americans favor Motorola. While Americans are fixated on the major portal, Europeans tend to trust their phone provider's (Vodaphone, o2, T-Mobile) portal equally.
"Three-quarters of American mobile Web surfers access content from the leading online portals such as Google, Yahoo! and MSN compared to only thirty percent of Europeans," commented Bob Ivins, managing director of comScore Europe.
"In Europe, the mobile Internet appears to mirror the dynamics of the fixed Internet. Google remains strong but the other U.S.-based portals achieve much lower penetration, facing stiff competition from local competitors--in this case the mobile providers-- who have the structural advantage of a degree of control over the access point and interface from the mobile phone."
An interesting question to pose may be the examination of access to convenient public transportation. Americans do a lot of driving, especially back and forth to work or between destinations with readily available desktop Internet. It would be interesting to see if there is a correlation between mobile access and, say, train usage.
The survey found that that visits to News sites via mobile phone were almost negligible, and nonexistent in Germany. Only in Italy and Britain did visits to News sites outnumber visits to Commerce sites - which may be telling itself of who is using mobile Internet.
What are people searching for the rest of the time, I wonder? Oh yeah.
Another survey, conducted in the US by Harris Interactive showed the over a quarter of mobile users were open to watching advertising on their handsets, as long as they received a free application for their phone in the exchange.
With a number that buries direct mail response rates, the Harris survey found that seven percent of respondents demonstrated a willingness to receive relevant promotional text messages.
Further, the study found also that nearly 10 percent of respondents had given up land lines altogether. Over half were considering the same thing. The thought follows, then, that the mobile market still has a ways to open up, and users are becoming more open toward marketing.
About the Author:
Jason L. Miller is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.
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