67 Mobile Facts To Develop Your 2014 Budget

How Your Audience Uses Mobile NOW [Research / Charts]

The mobile market including both smartphones and tablets continues to evolve at a rapid pace with consumers leading marketers in how they use these always-on devices.

To help develop  your 2014 marketing plans, here are 67 mobile facts from 2013 based on 25 market research charts.

From a marketing perspective, what’s important is not just the increased ownership of mobile devices but rather how people are using these devices to consume content, especially your marketing messages!

Mobile ownership

Monthly individual smartphone  global data consumption will increase  from 150MB in 2011 to 2.6GB in 2016 based on comScore projections. Concurrently, more data-intensive tablet adoption has reached over 50 million devices via WiFi or mobile networks. In the US, tablets account for 22% of mobile users.

Mobile adoption, including both smartphones and tablets, is changing the US digital landscape based on comScore data. US smartphone ownership has increased 25% to 143 million and tablet ownership has increased 55% to 71 million. It’s important to note that tablet ownership is about half of that of smartphones in 3 years!

Smartphones and tablets have caused Internet use to increase 93% since 2010 according to comScore.  

61% of US mobile subscribers owned a smartphone tracked by Nielsen, March through May 2013. That’s up over 10% since March 2012 when smartphones became the mobile majority for the first time. (Note: This percentage is the same as Pew Internet’s broader definition.)

80% of  recent US cellphone acquirers chose smartphones as their mobile handset according to Nielsen.

According to Pew Internet Research, 91% of the adult US population owns a cellphone. The breakout is as follows:

• 56% of US adults are smartphone adopters.
• 35% of US adults have a cellphone that isn’t a smartphone.
• 9% of US adults don’t own a cellphone at all.

US Smartphone demographics

Among all major US demographic groups, smartphone ownership has increased significantly according to Nielsen,

• 81% of adults aged 25-34 have smartphones, the highest smartphone age group penetration in the US.
• Almost 70% of US teens 13-17 use a smartphone.
• 50% of US adults 55+ own a smartphone.

Here’s the combined age and income breakout by Pew Internet Research:

When it comes to smartphones, sex matters!

In the US, women are the smartphone majority. Over 60% of US women use smartphones according to Nielsen.

Smartphone usage varies by ethnicity according to Nielsen.

• 75% of Asian Americans own smartphones.
• Caucasian smartphone ownership increased 56% on average during the last three months, up from 45% last year.

Younger adults across income levels tend to be smartphone owners. In the US, smartphone ownership tends to be especially high among twenty and thirty somethings. The majority of Americans in their forties through fifties are smartphone adopters. While  18% of the US 65+ demographic now own a smartphone, up 5 percentage points from 2012, this group tends to show low adoption levels relative to other demographic groups. 

In the US, smartphone ownership tends to correlate with income and education. In part this is attributable to cost factors.

Further, US smartphone adoption tends to be greater among urban users than rural ones, possibly due to greater connectivity and reception.

Smartphone platform dynamics

The Android operating system has captured the lion’s share of the US smartphone marketshare based on Nielsen data. Both Blackberry and Windows are insignificant in the US. 

US smartphone platforms break out as follows according to Pew Internet Research:

• 28% are Android users, up from 15% in May 2011.
• 25%  are iPhone users, up from 10% in May 2011.
• 4% are Blackberry users down from 10% in May 2011. 

In the US, it’s not just about the operating system. The smartphone handset manufacturer also matters. Here’s the US smartphone manufacturer breakout according to Nielsen:

• 40% are Apple
• 24% are Samsung, the largest Android phone manufacturer.
• 9% are HTC
• 9% are  Motorola.
• 7% are LG.
• 3% are a mix of other manufacturers.

 

Mobile advertising

US mobile advertising is projected to reach $8.5 billion in 2013, almost double its 2012 total of $4.4 billion. eMarketer expects US mobile advertising to almost quadruple by 2017 to reach $31.1 billion. Facebook proved that mobile advertising works.

Mobile search has roughly half of the US mobile advertising budget with $4.3 billion in revenues projected in 2013. Mobile search is expected to grow to $15.3 billion in 2017 according to eMarketer.  

Mobile advertising continues to take a larger share of the digital marketing spend. The overall global mobile ad market is projected to be $16.65 billion in 2013, up almost 90% from last year according to eMarketer.

Based on eMarketer projections, mobile spending is expected to grow from 14.2% of the total digital ad spend in 2013 to 36.3% in 2017.

North America continues to drive the lion’s share of the mobile Internet ad spend growing from 18.8% in 2013 to 49.1% in 2017.

In 2013, Google is projected to take over 50% of the worldwide mobile ad market, up slightly from 2012 according to eMarketer. This growth is attributable to expanded use of mobile search and mobile monetization of YouTube. 

The breakout for US mobile Internet ad revenue share by company is consistent with the global breakout according to eMarketer. 

Mobile messaging (SMS, etc.)

Global consumers are receptive to marketing messages received via mobile text and other formats according to research by Millward Brown Digital for mBlox.

• Almost 3 out of 5 consumers prefer marketing text and other push messages over other forms of mobile marketing such as video and banner advertising.
• 73% of those surveyed had received a mobile push marketing message from a company.
• 68% of those surveyed found the marketing message useful.
• 22% of those surveyed redeemed the deal in the message.
• 14% of those surveyed shared the message with family.
• 13% of those surveyed made a purchase from the company.

BUT ask permission to text prospects and customers!

• 88% of respondents believe they should be able to opt-in to mobile messages before a company contacts them.

Mobile customers get personal

mBlox research found that respondents were open to sharing personal information. Based on these results, marketers should work to leverage the power of their target audience’s location since that may be a sign that the prospect is in buying mode in their establishment or a competitor’s.

• 59% of respondents would share demographic information.
• 43% of respondents would share their location. 
• 26% of respondents would share their contact information.
• 10% of respondents would share their browsing history.
• 5% of respondents would share their contacts.   

• 80% of respondents indicated that downloading a company’s mobile app meant they were receptive to receiving location-based texts based on mBlox findings. Of course, these company messages MUST be relevant.
• 59% of respondents preferred to receive a relevant offer in the mobile messages they receive.

• 53% of consumers prefer SMS or text messages for offer promotions. This means that as a marketer, you must begin to build your mobile housefile.

Brands matter!  

• Of the 57% of consumers who find text messages persuasive, 53% are interested in messages from brands they know. 

Location counts for mobile consumers!

• 47% of respondents would share their location to receive a discount offer.
• 45% of respondents would share their location to get information they requested.
• 36% of respondents would share their location to resolve customer service issues.
• 24% of respondents would share their location to check in (social media).
• 17% of respondents believe that there’s no good reason to share their location with a company!

Make it easy for consumers to text you! This means provide a mobile phone number where customers can text you and receive responses. Let prospects and customers drive the SMS communications process.

• 58% of respondents will text companies to request information. 
• 54% of respondents will text companies to enter a competition.
• 32% of respondents will text companies to complain. While you may not want to hear this news, it’s better to deal with a personal on a one-to-one basis rather than on a more public forum.
• 24% of respondents will text companies to compliment them. This is positive feedback that you can leverage to expand sales and/or drive advocacy.
• 16% of respondents believe that there’s no good reason to text a company!

Mobile email

Smartphones are where we consume email! This has important implications for marketers. It means that you must make your emailings, both promotions and other customer communications, render well on mobile devices or they’ll be deleted.

62% of emails were opened on a mobile device. 48% of emails were opened on a smartphone and 14% of emails were opened on a tablet according to research by Moveable Ink in 2Q2013. 

• 51% of emailings are opened on an Apple smartphone or tablet.
• 10% of emailings are opened on an Android  smartphone or tablet.

But don’t assume that Apple is the best way to get your emailing consumed!

Android users, both smartphone and tablets, spend more time with each email. Of course, you shouldn’t get too excited. We’re talking about mere seconds!

Take into consideration where your target market is when creating your emailings since it has a strong influence on the type of device used. Surprisingly, Texas is the heaviest user of smartphones for email. 

Mobile apps

Mobile apps are critical for retailers. Don’t forget that mobile apps aren’t a slam dunk strategy. You must get people to download the app and to use it! Here are 21 actionable marketing tips to help promote your mobile app.

• 78% of smartphone users access a retail site via a mobile app according to comScore. These people want on-the-go, targeted information with minimal data use that a mobile app provides.
• 44% of tablet users accessed a retail site via a mobile app.

With the increased ownership and use of mobile devices, both smartphones and tablets, marketers must expand their mobile strategies beyond just mobile advertising including mobile search. You must consider that your marketing messages and content will be consumed on a variety of different devices with different consumption patterns.

To provide a point of comparison, here is our mobile roundup from January 2013 and our mobile roundup from April 2013.

Happy Marketing,
Heidi Cohen

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