Mobile Internet: Where Is Your Audience?

Mobile traffic pales in comparison with online traffic, but it is sizeable enough not to be ignored. Handset fragmentation both in the US and globally has stymied the delivery of excellent user experiences to date, resulting in less than 5% of US cell phone users browsing the mobile Internet daily. This handful of users, however, is generating substantial traffic, with AdMob properties alone seeing nearly 3 billion ad requests within the US during January 2009 — up from less than half that number just one year ago. Smartphones account for the most traffic per device, but basic "feature phones" deliver nearly two-thirds of all traffic. Traffic analysis will assist professionals responsible for developing a mobile Web presence as they make decisions around what browsers and devices to support directly, how to deploy a mobile Web presence, and which vendors to choose. It will also help them understand costs. These professionals should only make these technology decisions once they have analyzed the Mobile Technographics® Profiles of their customers, identified objectives, and designed a strategy.