Growing number of smartphone users bodes well for mobile web

Many key developments in digital media stand poised to redefine the way we consume content across platforms in 2010. Among these will be the introduction of paid-for content, further blurring of traditional TV broadcasting and online video distribution, and a significant acceleration in mobile internet use. This last is particularly important, for while content will continue to converge under the digital umbrella, the mobile internet can bring it to a wider and more consistently engaged audience.

By October 2009 there were approximately 48m mobile subscribers aged 13 and over in the UK. Of these, 13.3m accessed the internet from a mobile browser and just under 17m used a mobile app. Driven largely by the success of the iPhone, smartphones already account for 17.5% of handsets in the UK. When you consider that 65% of smartphone users accessed the internet in October 2009 compared with just 28% of all UK mobile subscribers, the potential for these devices to drive mobile internet use becomes clear.

Apps are undoubtedly the poster boys of the smartphone revolution. With more than 100,000 of them now available, their diversity is clearly appealing to a broad audience. Of the 17m mobile subscribers who used an app in October 2009, maps were the most popular, followed by weather, social networking and search apps.

But beyond the current must-have status of apps, more pragmatically the mobile internet is fast becoming part of our daily lives. Some 3.3m people accessed news and information daily through their mobile in October 2009, with a further 4.3m doing so on at least once a week. Of all UK mobile internet users, 41% were aged over 35, proving that this phenomenon isn’t the preserve of the young.

In many ways the mobile internet will this year finish what the fixed internet started. One could argue that the internet has always been fundamentally flawed: the most up-to-the minute, real-time distribution mechanism in the history of media is constrained by access and hardware. The mobile internet looks set to rectify this, providing round-the-clock, immediately accessible news, information, entertainment and communications. At the risk of hailing the coming of yet another false dawn, expect the mobile internet to be big in 2010.