M:metrics published a report earlier this year about how people use content on their mobile phones. It made for some interesting reading.
The excellent SMS Text News blog (http://www.smstextnews.com) reported it thus: “M:Metrics has an interesting report recently on mobile music, stating that 83% of mobile music is sideloaded onto the device. M:Metrics ran the survey all over the world and found that in all cases, users preferred sideloading to downloading directly from their carrier, with the exception of the U.S. and Spain. It’s also interesting that the U.S. has the smallest percentage of the population actually listening to music on their mobiles, a mere 5.7%.
M:Metrics tracked more than just music, however. Here’s a few other interesting comparisons of the U.S. vs the EU:
- Accessed News/Info via Browser: US 12.6 percent, EU 9.1 percent
- Played, Downloaded Mobile Game: US 9.1 percent, EU 8.7 percent
- Watched video: US 4.2 percent, EU 5.1 percent
- Accessed Downloaded Application: US 4.2 percent, EU 2.6 percent
- Sent/Received Photos or Videos: US 20.5 percent, EU 27.5 percent
- Received SMS Ads: US 20.6 percent, EU 53.3 percent
The usage numbers are shockingly low - less than 10% of mobile users have downloaded a game for example, despite all of the marketing efforts of the mobile operators and mobile content industry over the last 8 years. The comment that 83% of all music on mobile phones is sideloaded (i.e. moved directly from a PC to the phone through USB cable, Bluetooth etc) was, for me, even more interesting - it shows firstly that consumers are getting used to the idea of transferring content between devices (thank you Apple iPods), but also that content increasingly ends up being used on devices other than the one you originally thought it was destined for.
One of the defining characteristics of the digital age is that great ideas often morph from something completely different. For example, Flickr originally being developed out of tools for a online role playing game or VideoEgg going from a way to allow people to manage video on the web into a leading online video advertising network.
For me part of the excitement of being involved in 4iP is that we are going to be backing some really interesting ideas at the start of their journey, but we don’t really know where that journey will end - the 4iP funded content will end up on different devices and used in ways we can’t yet imagine, and some of the businesses we back will end up with completely different (but hopefully exciting and sustainable) business models!
Ewan McIntosh on Thu, September 04, 2008 at 10:53 said:
I’m even more interested by what they’re doing in Asia where, arguably, they are lightyears ahead of the US and, though the gap is narrowing, Europe. Having worked with teens and seen how they use their mobile phones, iPods and PCs, I think we can sometimes romanticise what they do with them. Asia’s trends, though, give us an indication of where our teens and young adults are headed soon.
Earlier this year at LIFT in Geneva I got a rundown of the latest (for then) stats on mobile usage in Asia:
http://edu.blogs.com/edublogs/2008/02/asia-some-mobil.html
One thing that comes through is that while sideloading is the main way for getting music onboard your phone at the moment, particularly in places like Canada where the rates are so high and amongst teens where it’s cheapest and easiest, it won’t be in time. If what is happening in Asia pumps Westwards, and it already is to some degree, more and more of the masses will be uising their cell phone more than their laptop or iPod not only to listen to music but to buy and download it, too. Then, we start to get interested by how apps like Last.fm can start to manage that side of our music life, too.
Music’s such an important part of who we are and, for younger generations, so is their mobile phone. I think it would be remiss of us not to do something now that takes advantage of the mobile/music/web/‘ambiently intimate’ friendship culture that is beginning to come over the horizon of our young people.
stuart cosgrove on Fri, September 05, 2008 at 1:52 said:
Hi Ewan
Why go to Geneva to learn about mobile stats in Asia when you could walk out of your front door in Edinburgh and meet Zamsana Media purveyors of teen content for Korean and SE Asia market, with developers in Edinburgh and Sri Lanka. Then meet the originator of this blog Darren Cockburn and work out how both of you can advance the creative mobile activity in Scotland. I’m off now to meet Tag Games one of the best mobile media companies in Dundee. You get on with building that social network site. And stay off twitter its bad for your health.
Stuart Cosgrove
4IP Editor on Fri, September 05, 2008 at 3:44 said:
Still on Twitter, Stuart, and no twinges yet
Looking over those stats again from Darren, though, I’m seeing something interesting that I would love confirming from those in the game-making community. We have some amazing talent in Scotland making these games but how many per cent of the end-players are in the UK?
Sure, the scale of the market is much bigger in the US and Asia, but relatively speaking are UK/European audiences less interested in taking part in these games, services and challenges? If so, why so? Vital questions, I think, for 4iP as it works out what to commission and why. We’re certainly not about commissioning platforms for the sake of the platform, so we have to work out what service or content is going to make our home audience tick.
stuart cosgrove on Fri, September 05, 2008 at 4:20 said:
...And also to find ways in which the core ‘public’ purposes of 4iP can be popular, relevant and in some cases commercially rewarding.
...what is clear is that the launch of iphone and the world of mobile apps and integrations, opens up new creative opportunities that didn’t previously exist…
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