Mobile Devices Now More Popular Than TV Globally. How About Your Country? Posted by Goutama Bachtiar on March 5, 2012 in Features

According to a recent survey released by InMobi, half of Singaporeans rely heavily on

mobile devices to access the Internet, with 29% finding relevant products and services

nearby, and 47% using their handsets as primary medium influencing their purchasing

decisions. This is good news for mobile advertising networks, with 71% of surveyed users

say they are comfortable with mobile ads.

Visitors walk by a billboard of Samsung Electronics Galaxy Note at the firm's headquarters in Seoul, South

Korea, in this file photo. Mobile devices like smartphones and tablets have surpassed TV as the primary

means of accessing content in Asia and around the world. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Ease of use (50%), availability (38%) and privacy (31%) are key drivers behind the increase

of mobile web usage, which is driven by social media, entertainment and email. InMobi’s

network data report reveals that Singapore mobile ad market grew by 30% to over 469

million ad impressions in Q3 2011.

According to the report from the same source, Apple is definitely a favorite in Singapore,

with six devices, including the iPad and iPod, on the top 20 list of mobile devices. Even

though iOS continues to lose share to Android, Apple’s platform still dominates the market

by 44%, followed by Android with 31% and RIM with 9% share.

In Indonesia, a study involving 1,077 respondents shows around 82% using their mobile as

the exclusive means of accessing the web. 24% of their time was spent for social media

activities, and another 20% for entertainment such as music and videos.

This market consumes media is 36% of the time using their mobile device, while they only

watch TV 27% of the time. In Malaysia, the figure is lower. From 1,091 mobile users polled,

27% spend their time on mobile, slightly higher than 26% on TV. For this market 57% say

mobile devices are their primary means to access the net.

A similar trend is prevalent in India. 72% of internet users in the nation use their mobile as

their primary means of accessing the web. India has outscored others in the Asia-Pacific

region, such as South Korea, Singapore and Australia, in terms of mobile centricity, a

measure of relative importance of the mobile phone compared to other media.

Here, mobile internet users spend 33% of their media time on mobile devices — higher

than any other media, including TV which received 27% of users’ attention. The survey was

conducted in 18 markets across the country involving 2,200 respondents that spent an

average of 94 minutes per day on their mobile phone for content consumption, excluding

time spent for SMS, voice and video calls.

In A Global View of Mobile Advertising, an earlier report published by the world’s largest

independent mobile advertising network partnered with ComScore, 69% of Asians were

comfortable with receiving mobile ads while over 54% were ready for

customized/personalized advertising.

It highlighted changing consumer attitudes towards advertising and made some key

revelations about the smart phone market in Asia. This certainly is good news for mobile

app developers, who look to monetize their apps through ads. And it represents the

changing notion among consumers — ads are no longer seen as intrusive and not helpful.

How does it look globally? InMobi unveiled its comprehensive global Mobile Media

Consumption Q4 2011 Survey at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last week.

Mobile devices have surpassed TV in terms of time spent with 27% compared to 22%. The

other notable point is that social networking (they did it again!), entertainment, and search

are the top three mobile media activities among mobile web users. 66% are comfortable

with mobile ads.

On the findings, InMobi CEO and Founder Naveen Tewari highlighted how mobile devices

are redefining how users consume media

[W]e will continue to see these trends rapidly accelerate as consumers rely ever more heavily on their mobile device. While the opportunities to exploit mobile media remain strong, the stakeholders across the industry will be confronted with ongoing questions and challenges which need to be addressed in order to meet the growing expectations of the customer.

Increased mobile usage and time spent on mobile devices is brought about by the need to

stay online, connected and informed while on-the-go. It opens an opportunity for advertisers

to significantly increase the impact of their existing advertising efforts and gain access to a

bigger audience.

As published in http://www.techwireasia.com/2197/mobile-devices-now-more-popular-than-television-globally-

how-about-your-country/