THE HOME OF SOCIAL TV

Mobile web poised to explode

Posted by Cory Bergman on March 24, 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.)