Hands0n
3rd August 2008, 08:24 PM
This is not intended to be another of those iPhone vs rest of the world comments. However, it has been recognised that the device has, even in its 2G incarnation, spurred mobile web usage like no other device to date. And that has to be a significant finding, especially considering the youth of the iPhone, it is only a little over a year old.
Google has said that it has seen 50 times more searches on Apples iPhone than any other mobile handset. Why should that be? Is is any accident? The statistic is all the more staggering when seen against the number of iPhones that are out in the field compared to all of the other Internet-capable mobile handsets. The Nokia N95 alone must exceed the iPhone in sheer numbers, so why does it not figure above the iPhone, it has had much longer to entrench itself, as have other handsets. There are supposedly some 20 million Windows Mobile handsets sold, although not all will still be in circulation.
Great blog post (http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/18/iphone-users-are-mobile-web-junkies/) at the New York Times last week about the disproportionate percentage of iPhone users (84.8%) who use the iPhone regularly to access the Web (compared to users of other smart phone devices). Mark Donovan of M:Metrics is quoted in the article saying that this is because the iPhone is particularly well suited to people who are jacked into the Internet all the time. Doesnt putting the Web front and center on the device, bundling the device with very Internet-friendly price plans, and making the thing so damn easy to use have just as much to do with it? Its no surprise to me that Google has seen 50 times more searches from the iPhone than from any other mobile handset (as reported in the FT (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/667f13de-da60-11dc-9bb9-0000779fd2ac.html) last month). Ive spent the last 3 years in lamenting the fact that device manufacturers make it so difficult to find the place to enter the URL into the browser that most people simply give up. My three year old daughter picked up my iPhone for the first time and within seconds she had brought up the browser, found the space to enter a URL and had started typing away. That was a an ah-ha moment for me about the iPhones usability. Mark kind of implies that iPhone owners are using the mobile Web because only because they are naturally predisposed to such use. My gut feeling is that the iPhone is actually crossing the chasm into the general public. There is a latent demand for the mobile Web and the iPhone is tapping that demand, where others have failed and continue to fail.
Source URL: http://www.torgo.com/blog/2008/03/iphone-spurs-mobile-web-usage.html
Some news from earlier this year, prior to the iPhone 3G becoming available suggests that the mobile Safari browser (iPhone) had made significant inroads to mobile Internet usage.
From December to March, Mobile Safari's browser market share in the U.S. jumped from 0.14 percent to 0.23 percent. StatCounter said that the iPhone is now the number one mobile browser in the United States, and number two globally -- Nokia still leads in the global market, 0.25 percent to 0.08 percent -- however, the iPhone is only available in select international markets.
Source URL: http://www.pcworld.com/article/143732/mobile_safari_gains_market_share.html
And for the same period in 1Q/2008 this was reported..
The research tracked data from two million or sites and suggests that the iPhone is now the most popular mobile browser in the US, representing .23 percent of all browser traffic. That number is up from .14 percent in December, an increase of almost 65 percent. Mobile Safari's browser share of the global market has also risen from .03 to .08 percent since December, however mobile Safari is still playing second fiddle to Nokia's .25 percent global market share, according to StatCounter. Sure, those percentages are pretty small, but based on the relatively few iPhones that have been sold so far (compared to all other devices out there with mobile browsers), the device obviously continues to win over mobile Internet surfers.
Source URL: http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/03/25/iphones-mobile-safari-making-big-market-share-gains
And finally some nearer news (July 2008) where we learn that the iPhone market share for mobile browser use is 0.19 percent, not a big number in absolute terms but one has to consider how small the overall mobile browser market is right now.
As for the iPhone, the good news is that market share has roughly quadrupled in just over a year. The bad news is that four times nothing is still nothing, or 0.19 percent in this case. Still, there can be no doubt that the introduction of the iPhone 3G gave a big boost to that nothing in just a few weeks during July. Again, it's important to keep in mind that the iPhone is listed as an operating system, and it is growth that matters. Linux has doubled its insignificant status in the last year, going from 0.4 to 0.8 percent, but that growth loses out to the iPhone's rate, and things will only get better. Apple is on record as projecting 10 million iPhones sold indon't even say "through"2008, and 10 million is roughly double the number sold so far. Assuming Apple makes its goal, iPhone market share should be at least 0.4 percent by early next year.
Source URL: http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/08/01/iphone-market-share-jumps-in-july
There we have it - from several perspectives the mobile browser market has had a massive shot in the arm from Apple's iPhone. But the overall market is tiny compared to desktop browsers. By these numbers we are not even beyond day one of the mobile Internet experience.
Google has said that it has seen 50 times more searches on Apples iPhone than any other mobile handset. Why should that be? Is is any accident? The statistic is all the more staggering when seen against the number of iPhones that are out in the field compared to all of the other Internet-capable mobile handsets. The Nokia N95 alone must exceed the iPhone in sheer numbers, so why does it not figure above the iPhone, it has had much longer to entrench itself, as have other handsets. There are supposedly some 20 million Windows Mobile handsets sold, although not all will still be in circulation.
Great blog post (http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/18/iphone-users-are-mobile-web-junkies/) at the New York Times last week about the disproportionate percentage of iPhone users (84.8%) who use the iPhone regularly to access the Web (compared to users of other smart phone devices). Mark Donovan of M:Metrics is quoted in the article saying that this is because the iPhone is particularly well suited to people who are jacked into the Internet all the time. Doesnt putting the Web front and center on the device, bundling the device with very Internet-friendly price plans, and making the thing so damn easy to use have just as much to do with it? Its no surprise to me that Google has seen 50 times more searches from the iPhone than from any other mobile handset (as reported in the FT (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/667f13de-da60-11dc-9bb9-0000779fd2ac.html) last month). Ive spent the last 3 years in lamenting the fact that device manufacturers make it so difficult to find the place to enter the URL into the browser that most people simply give up. My three year old daughter picked up my iPhone for the first time and within seconds she had brought up the browser, found the space to enter a URL and had started typing away. That was a an ah-ha moment for me about the iPhones usability. Mark kind of implies that iPhone owners are using the mobile Web because only because they are naturally predisposed to such use. My gut feeling is that the iPhone is actually crossing the chasm into the general public. There is a latent demand for the mobile Web and the iPhone is tapping that demand, where others have failed and continue to fail.
Source URL: http://www.torgo.com/blog/2008/03/iphone-spurs-mobile-web-usage.html
Some news from earlier this year, prior to the iPhone 3G becoming available suggests that the mobile Safari browser (iPhone) had made significant inroads to mobile Internet usage.
From December to March, Mobile Safari's browser market share in the U.S. jumped from 0.14 percent to 0.23 percent. StatCounter said that the iPhone is now the number one mobile browser in the United States, and number two globally -- Nokia still leads in the global market, 0.25 percent to 0.08 percent -- however, the iPhone is only available in select international markets.
Source URL: http://www.pcworld.com/article/143732/mobile_safari_gains_market_share.html
And for the same period in 1Q/2008 this was reported..
The research tracked data from two million or sites and suggests that the iPhone is now the most popular mobile browser in the US, representing .23 percent of all browser traffic. That number is up from .14 percent in December, an increase of almost 65 percent. Mobile Safari's browser share of the global market has also risen from .03 to .08 percent since December, however mobile Safari is still playing second fiddle to Nokia's .25 percent global market share, according to StatCounter. Sure, those percentages are pretty small, but based on the relatively few iPhones that have been sold so far (compared to all other devices out there with mobile browsers), the device obviously continues to win over mobile Internet surfers.
Source URL: http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/03/25/iphones-mobile-safari-making-big-market-share-gains
And finally some nearer news (July 2008) where we learn that the iPhone market share for mobile browser use is 0.19 percent, not a big number in absolute terms but one has to consider how small the overall mobile browser market is right now.
As for the iPhone, the good news is that market share has roughly quadrupled in just over a year. The bad news is that four times nothing is still nothing, or 0.19 percent in this case. Still, there can be no doubt that the introduction of the iPhone 3G gave a big boost to that nothing in just a few weeks during July. Again, it's important to keep in mind that the iPhone is listed as an operating system, and it is growth that matters. Linux has doubled its insignificant status in the last year, going from 0.4 to 0.8 percent, but that growth loses out to the iPhone's rate, and things will only get better. Apple is on record as projecting 10 million iPhones sold indon't even say "through"2008, and 10 million is roughly double the number sold so far. Assuming Apple makes its goal, iPhone market share should be at least 0.4 percent by early next year.
Source URL: http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/08/01/iphone-market-share-jumps-in-july
There we have it - from several perspectives the mobile browser market has had a massive shot in the arm from Apple's iPhone. But the overall market is tiny compared to desktop browsers. By these numbers we are not even beyond day one of the mobile Internet experience.