Mobile web poised to explode
Cory Bergman March 24th, 2008
Google says it has a plan for Americans everywhere to be able to surf the web on handheld devices at WiFi 2.0 speeds by the 2009 holiday season. How? By tapping unused “white spaces” in TV signals, but the FCC still has to sign off on it. And that’s not a slam dunk, because some are worried that Google’s plan would result in signal interference.
But if Google can pull this off, imagine the ramifications. Anyone with Google Android software on their smart phones will be able to navigate the web just about anywhere in the country at gigabits-per-second speeds. Suddenly, the mobile web will EXPLODE. In many respects, it’s already beginning to explode. Just look at these new iPhone stats: 85% of iPhone users accessed news and information websites in January, compared to 58.2% of smart phone users and 13.1% of the overall market. And that’s at a slower speed that Google promises with its “WiFi on steriods.”
| Activity | iPhone | Smartphone | Market |
| Any news or info via browser | 84.8% | 58.2% | 13.1% |
| Accessed web search | 58.6% | 37.0% | 6.1% |
| Watched mobile TV and/or video | 30.9% | 14.2% | 4.6% |
| Watched on-demand video or TV | 20.9% | 7.0% | 1.4% |
| Accessed Social Networking Site/Blog | 49.7% | 19.4% | 4.2% |
| Listened to music on mobile phone | 74.1% | 27.9% | 6.7% |
(Source: M:Metrics, Inc., Copyright © 2008.)
4 Comments Add your own
1. Robert Sharl | March 24th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
As if it’s as simple as speed of access! The 84.8% of users accessing data on the iPhone aren’t doing it because of the speed: In some of those cases (particularly here in Europe) they’ll have switched from a faster 3G phone service where they used data hardly ever. Google will have to provide a consistent browsing experience that’s intuitive and simple to use. This won’t be easy, especially on multiple hardware configurations.
2. Anonymous | March 25th, 2008 at 2:11 am
That should make a mess in your car other than stray Cheetos and change!
3. David T | March 25th, 2008 at 9:57 am
The increased browsing is going to push adoption of iPhone-like screen real estate. Especially as people begin to watch more and more video on their “phones”
Considering how much more texting, twittering and emailing i do than actual calling, the calling function may become less and less of a concern to users.
4. ~bc | March 25th, 2008 at 11:16 am
The other key to data popularity on the iPhone is the unlimited data plan. I simply boycotted mobile internet access until the iPhone because I had no desire to count kilobytes.
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