The internet on the move is still something of a marketer’s dream if new research from web analysts, Point Topic is anything to go by.
According to their latest data, there are fewer than three million people in the UK who are using mobile internet on a regular basis.
Point Topic asked 2000 people from across the UK if they had accessed the internet on a mobile device during May. They found that just six per cent of the general adult population, equivalent to 2.9 million users, said they had used the internet on the move in the last month.
When the survey selected those who regularly used a fixed internet connection the proportion was marginally, if not dramatically, higher at nine per cent.
“The typical mobile internet user who emerges from this research is a member of a privileged minority,” says Tim Johnson, Chief Analyst at Point Topic.
“These are people who have everything. On the whole they are young, well-paid, well-educated and they own a much wider range of consumer goods than average, particularly digital devices of all kinds.”
As with other kinds of internet access, there is a strong correlation between socio-economic status and mobile internet use.
But it is not all bad news. The Point Topic results show that the prospects for growing the number of mobile internet users look quite good.
“Of the 28.7 million people who do already use the internet, but not on the move, some 62 per cent, or 17.8 million, say they could be interested in one or more mobile applications. This offers the opportunity for rapid growth over the next few years,” concludes Johnson.
Meanwhile, when you do spot someone surfing the net on a handheld devices it is likely they are doing so with a BlackBerry.
According to the makers of mobile browser, Opera Mini, the BlackBerry 8310 is the UK’s most popular mobile for accessing the internet. Of those handsets most popular for mobile browsing with Opera Mini, three out of the top five models are BlackBerry products, according to Opera's State of the Mobile Web survey.
After the BlackBerry 8310, the second most popular choice of handset for mobile internet access is the Sony Ericsson K800i, followed by the BlackBerry 8100, the BlackBerry 8800 and the Nokia 6300. And it is a similar story in the United States where BlackBerry handsets dominate with nine of the ten top handsets.
Interestingly, worldwide mobile users are not all clutching smartphones. Instead, it is owners of Nokia handsets that are the most prevalent users of Opera Mini. But the figures do require some qualification as they relate only to handsets running the Opera mobile browser and do not include the Apple i-Phone, which runs Mac’s mobile version of Safari and is now available as a 3G Wi-Fi handset.
Opera Mini is a Java-based browser that will work on more than 800 different mobile phone handsets, according to the company. It has around 14.5 million users globally.
