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Analyst Speak - Mobile set to become prime way to go online

Platform: Mobile | Author: James Burke, BMRB Media | Source: NMA magazine | Published: 02.08.07

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With internet functionality becoming a standard feature on most mobile phones, the number of people who will have access to the internet via a mobile should, by as early as next year, be higher than the number who go online via a home computer.

As yet, only 2.1m British adults claim to have accessed the internet via a mobile, which is significantly lower than the 27.9m people going online via a home computer. Despite the fact that this functionality exists on many adults' phones, it doesn't...

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... get used. Our latest BMRB/TGI Net report found that only around a quarter of those who know that their phone can access the internet will actually use this function. In comparison, 82% of adults with a home computer use it to go online.

As the barriers to usage - cost, consumer uncertainty and technological issues like site functionality, screen size and loading speeds - fall, we'd expect to see this market grow rapidly. This is also likely to be driven by key groups spreading the message. Mobile internet users are 60% more likely than the average mobile user to talk to many people about mobiles. Also, they're 85% more likely to feel they know a large amount about mobiles and 97% more likely to state that they could convince others about mobile phones. Clearly there's a leading group in this market that's potentially vital to the mass take-up of the internet on mobile. What will be important is to make sure this group isn't over-served to the detriment of the remainder of the market, people who may not have the same technological desires.

This is a potentially lucrative audience. They have a young profile and are often hard to reach through conventional media; 75% are aged between 15 and 35. It's also a medium that allows you to reach users when they might otherwise be inaccessible. A survey on BMRB's Online Omnibus in May found that 44% of adult mobile internet users had got online while on public transport, and 32% during work breaks.

Reaching this audience via the mobile internet also opens up a number of opportunities. They may be a new audience or an existing audience that can be engaged in a new way. There's the potential for subscription services, which already 7% of mobile internet users claim to have purchased. In addition, there are downloads to mobiles, which 56% of mobile internet users say they have made. And don't forget the potential for advertising - a fifth of mobile internet users say that they remember seeing an ad online via a mobile. This audience is very lucrative and has enormous potential for growth.

James Burke is syndicated product manager at BMRB Media