U.S. Open Golf Site Draws 500 Percent Increase In Mobile Site Visitors

Mobile Web usage continues to grow by leaps and bounds as smartphones with large touch screens become the new normal. One quick data point comes from the United States Golf Association and IBM, which runs its Websites. During the 2010 U.S. Open golf tournament last week, 1.7 million people visited the U.S. Open’s mobile site, a 518 percent increase from last year. In contrast, the regular site saw only 4.2 million visitors, during the week, up 8 percent.

In other words, nearly 30 percent of traffic to the U.S. Open site was from mobile devices. The fact that golf fans didn’t need to fire up their laptops or turn on their TVs to find the latest scores and keep up with the play was enough to make the mobile site take off. And the mobile site was pretty stripped down—there was an all-text news feed, scores, tee times, and some video.

Really, that is all you need. Mobile sites should still be built for delivering quick bursts of information. When you are on the go, you probably don’t have time to wait for a busy page to load with graphics you can barely see anyway. But before touch-screen phones, the mobile Web was too difficult to navigate. Remove the friction of getting on the Web, and people will come in droves.

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Mobile Web usage in smartphones

Net Applications’ latest mobile web usage report contradicts an earlier survey claiming that the Android platform overtook the iPhone in terms of market share, at least in the US. According to their May web metrics released Monday, Google’s Android is indeed rapidly gaining usage share, but the iPhone still maintains quite a lead.

The survey, distilled in the included pie chart, is based on aggregated traffic data obtained from partner websites representing a total of 160 million visitors a month, the slice they claim is a representative sample of the web at large. However, note that these figures only indicate active smartphone platform use across those partner sites rather than the actual number of devices sold. According to Net Applications:

Both have been overshadowed,by Java ME – found mostly on low-end and older smartphones – which remains the leading mobile browsing platform with a 40.04 percent usage share.

The Symbian platform, found on most Nokia smartphones, was ahead of Android and behind the iPhone with a 13.98 percent usage share. BlackBerry and Windows Mobile came in fifth and sixth with a 3.59 percent and 2.97 percent usage share, respectively

The iPhone actually gained more global share than Android in May, going from 30.3 percent to 32.8 percent. In the same timeframe, Android went from 5.3 percent to 6.2 percent. Java ME (which stands for micro-edition) still maintains the number spot as the most popular platform for mobile browsing. This platform is in use on a large variety of devices and is rapidly losing share to both Android and the iPhone.

The survey revealed that the iPhone gained more market share in May than Android, although Google’s mobile operating system grew at a faster pace. More precisely, Android increased its May usage share over the previous month by 17 percent versus an 8.25 percent increase for the iPhone. This shouldn’t surprise you because a tinier user base like Android grows faster in percentage terms than a nearly 100 million-strong installed base of iPhone OS devices

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Mobile phones to overtake PCs for web surfing by 2013

By 2013, more people will be accessing the web from mobile phones than from PCs, according to analyst firm Gartner’s latest set of predictions.

The company says that there will be 1.78 billion PCs in use that year, outstripped by the 1.82 billion install base of smartphones and browser-equipped feature phones.

“Websites not optimized for the smaller-screen formats will become a market barrier for their owners,” claims Gartner. “Much content and many sites will need to be reformatted/rebuilt.”

The analyst’s new report also predicts that context – including location, presence and social interactions – will become as important to mobile services as search engines are to the web.

“The most powerful position in the context business model will be a context provider,” says Gartner.

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Expanding Mobile Web

Taptu, the search and discovery engine that indexes touch screen content, reveals in its second quarterly report that the Mobile Touch Web has grown 35 percent since last quarter, which represents a 232 percent annual growth rate. This puts its growth rate ahead of the App Store, currently showing an annual growth of 144 percent, but behind the Android Market growing at an annual rate of 403 percent, albeit from a smaller base.

The report, which covers January 2010-April 2010, also shows Mobile Touch Web sites rose to 440,100 from 326,600 in January. At this current run rate, the report predicts that the Mobile Touch Web will increase to 1.1 million sites by the end of the year, nearly twice Taptu’s original forecast, and nearly a full year ahead of our January prediction, fueled in part by the continued consumer love affair with touch screen phones, and even more importantly the rising sales of mid-range touch-enabled devices.

Key Findings From Taptu’s Quarterly Report Analyzing the Growth of the Mobile Touch Web:

1. The number of touch friendly websites is dramatically higher than just 4 months ago. At the end of 2010, we found 326,600 touch friendly websites. In April 2010, that number has increased to 440,100 sites. This represents a 35 percent increase in the quarter and an annual growth rate of 232 percent.

2. App Store numbers are up too, showing a comparative annual growth rate of 144 percent up to 185,000 apps. The largest growth has been in the Android Market, now showing 35,947 apps and an annual growth rate of 403 percent.
The iPhone is a strong platform, but it only accounts for 10 percent of the worldwide market of touch screen devices. If a company simply employs an iPhone application as their sole mobile strategy, they are only pursuing 10 percent of the market.

3. mCommerce/ Shopping & Services continue to dominate the Mobile Touch Web representing over 22 per cent of the 440,100 sites compared to the App Store where equivalent services represent fewer than 4 per cent.

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Mobile Library Website

The mobile website at the University of Minnesota Libraries was optimized for iPhone users.Oregon State University Library created two versions of its mobile site, one optimized for smartphones and one for web-enabled cell phones, which have smaller screens. It’s easy to create an algorithm that will detect from what type of device a user is accessing a website and redirect the patron to the appropriate version for that device.

Other libraries have created mobile applications that allow users to search the catalog and selected databases, place holds, contact the library, check hours and more from their smartphone.The District of Columbia Public Library and the University of Houston both have created impressive library iPhone apps. DCPL has even made its source code available for others to modify.

In addition to creating a mobile website or application, there are many other resources and services libraries can mobilize for their users, including reference services, instructional content, and the catalog.With the mainstreaming of mobile devices, libraries can no longer ignore this important trend. By mobilizing our library resources and services, we make ourselves accessible to patrons wherever they are, from a device that fits in their pocket.

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Reasons for having a mobile website

In 2009, $1.6 billion was obtained from purchases in mobile devices

93% of Americans own their mobile phones.

5% of the top 500 online retailers possess a mobile site/ iPhone app

Budgets for mobile marketing is expected to cross $6.5 billion in 2012

Internet users are using it on an average of 13 hours a week, which was just 7 in 2002

There are more than 2 billion mobile phones estimated worldwide

Google owns a separate mobile site index

Nearly 1/5 of Americans access mobile web daily

Mobile web is expected to surpass desktop web in just five years

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Mobile Web Browsers

Opera Mobile

Opera Mini

Skyfire

Safari

Google Android

Microsoft IE for Mobile

Firefox Mobile

Bolt

Teashark

Blazer

Mozilla’s Minimo

Bitstream’s Thunderhawk

S60 Web Browser.

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Mobile web usage

Bango – the mobile payments and analytics specialist – reports a 600% growth in traffic to mobile websites. The company analyzed traffic to a range of mobile sites over the last 12 months. Data was gathered by sampling across 50 million phone users worldwide who have accessed third party mobile sites through its platform.
The key findings from Bango’s annual mobile usage study record 6 times the number of visits to mobile websites, comparing December 2009 with the same month a year earlier. The average time on site is measured as 3 minutes, 21 seconds, averaged across user visits to all sites, compared with just over one and half minutes the previous year. The analysis also measured the average number of pages viewed per visit at 5 pages, up from just over 2 pages per visit twelve months before.

Over the last twelve months, these site-level figures have increased by an average of 230% compared to a year ago, with consumers visiting sites more frequently from their phones and browsing more pages over longer periods of time. The key categories for mobile browsing are news, sports and general media sites (including newspapers), mobile content downloads, social networking and retail sites.

Another key finding is that smartphones are driving the highest usage of the mobile web, with BlackBerry accounting for over 17% of the mobile devices recorded across sites.The number of visits by BlackBerry users also exceeds any other device.

According to Gartner, the top three devices for worldwide smartphone sales in 2009, in order, were Nokia, BlackBerry then the iPhone. Factoring in the relative sales growth across the different smartphone brands the data suggests that iPhone browsing has, if anything, slightly declined per user measured, which could be a result of consumers being directed towards apps instead of websites.

Bango’s analysis also reveals significant usage of Wi-Fi connections by phone users. Wi-Fi connections average at 23% of all connections measured by Bango, with some rich media sites averaging one-third of all connections through Wi-Fi. This suggests that consumers are increasingly aware of Wi-Fi on mobile handsets and will connect via Wi-Fi where available, motivated by speed and perceived cost benefits. Sites that attract high percentages of Wi-Fi connected users include those that broadcast video, music and other streamed content.

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Handcase Search engine for Mobile – Gune

Handcase has launched its mobile search engine, named Gune. The Gune solution is a system of meta-search. Handcase is a Brazilian software company.

Gune searches other websites and generates a single page of results. Search results are optimized for small screen phones and smartphones. Gune consults other search engines such as Google (News – Alert) and Bing to deliver the search results. Unlike traditional meta-search websites on the Internet that use the same principle, Gune displays 10 results each from Google and Bing simultaneously on the same page. Moreover, Gune offers the search box both at the top and at the end of each page.

Another factor that differentiates Gune from traditional meta-search websites that are based on the same principles is the fact that the search results provided are only from mobile search. According to Ricardo Garay, CEO Handcase, the goal was to optimize the time of the user. Gune aims to provide a superior experience with search. At present, Gune is available only in English. Handcase is working on Gune’s versions in Portuguese and Spanish.

The Gune offers a catalog of mobile websites. That is, users will be able to submit their mobile websites in Gune’s mobile website directory. It is not necessary to own a mobile website to submit it. If a user knows any mobile websites, he can go ahead and submit it. Garay added that since Gune is designed for everyone to contribute to the directory, whoever has, or knows a website mobile should just visit the website for the PC and give his tip. As soon as the website is checked and approved, it will be added to the directory.

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Mobile Usability Guidelines

Meet user’s needs quickly
Design mobile friendly pages
Don’t repeat the navigation on all the pages
Distinguish clearly selected items
Make user input as simple as possible
Show only essential information in the mobile

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