Mobile Research Roundup
by Debi Jones
Research Roundup is a weekly feature from the writers and editors of MM2. Every week MM2 editors and writers will recommend interesting findings from a variety of research sources covering the mobile industry.
From Russ Shaw
Mobile Social Computing Adds Trust To Marketing
A new report from Forrester Research notes that members of “Generation Y” spend as much time on their cell phones as on the Web.
Because of these usage patterns, Forrester analysts Vidya Lakshmipathy and Jaap Favier see promising opportunities for text messaging within existing as well as new, social computing sites. “Most of this time is spent sending and receiving text and picture messages, but with more than half also using social networking sites, the likes of Facebook and MySpace have now launched mobile social computing sites, and new mobile networks like Zingku are popping up,” the analysts write.
From Debi Jones
Birth of a Cell Phone Nation
According to Mediamark Research, US consumers have reached a landmark. There are more cell phone-only households in the US than landline-only households.
From Paul Ruppert
”New” Does Not Mean ”Better” in All Countries
A new global survey of innovation acceptance undertaken by The Institute for Innovation & Information Productivity Innovation–The Innovation Confidence Index–reveals that consumers’ confidence in the ability of more advanced products and services to improve their lives varies greatly around the world and that up to half of consumers in some European continental countries are skeptical of the value of innovation.
From Darla Mack
US Mobile Searchers
Mobile search is gaining strength in the US market, where the Nielsen Company estimates 46.1 million wireless subscribers are using 411 and SMS-based mobile search on their phones in the third quarter of 2007.
From Imran Ali
Metaphors for the Mobile Internet
This paper examines a set of metaphors for describing, understanding and characterising the Mobile Internet. The metaphors are a result of extensive user studies in the US, Hong Kong and Europe in the late 2006 and early 2007. In these studies, we explored the user experience related to the Mobile Internet through in-depth contextual interviews with over 40 users, including a group in the US, which was deprived of their standard Internet PC access for several days. Our analysis of the collected data resulted in six metaphors that can be used as powerful creative tools in designing Mobile Internet applications.
From Ewan Spence
Quarter of Marketeers Use Mobile
The results of Wave Eight survey of marketers, showing that 26 percent said they were currently using mobile, 20 percent said they planned to use it in the next six months and 54 percent said they are not currently using mobile.
