Mobile Media Consumption

What if everything you have been doing for the past 40 years to advertise and market your business was outdated and stopped working?

This was a question I used to ask advertisers a few years ago when they saw the number of new leads shrink from the old stand-by, the newspaper.

I have circulation numbers for my two local newspapers for the past 8 years that shows how the decline in readership coincides with the decline in advertising and the increase in prices for both.

The other form of advertising that should be taking a hit soon is the phone book, if it hasn't already in your city.

But on the cusp of being outdated is the website that is not mobile optimized.

Check out this report I got from RAB.com:

35 Percent of American Adults Own a Smartphone

In its first stand-alone measure of smartphone ownership, the Pew Internet Project finds that one third of American adults -- 35% -- own smartphones. The Project's May survey found that 83% of US adults have a cell phone of some kind, and that 42% of them own a smartphone. That translates into 35% of all adults.

Our definition of a smartphone owner includes anyone who falls into either of the following two categories:

• One-third of cell owners (33%) say that their phone is a smartphone.
• Two in five cell owners (39%) say that their phone operates on a smartphone platform (these include iPhones and Blackberry devices, as well as phones running the Android, Windows or Palm operating systems).

Several groups have higher than average levels of smartphone adoption, including:

• The financially well-off and well-educated -- 59% of adults living in a household earning income of $75,000 or more are smartphone owners; 48% of those with a college degree own smartphones.
• Those under the age of 45 -- 58% of Americans between the ages of 25 and 34 now own a smartphone as do 49% of those ages 18-24 and 44% of those ages 35-44. Even among those with a household income of $30,000 or less, smartphone ownership rates for those ages 18-29 are equal to the national average.
• African-Americans and Latinos -- 44% of blacks and Latinos are smartphone users.

Urban and suburban residents are roughly twice as likely to own a smartphone as those living in rural areas, and employment status is also strongly correlated with smartphone ownership.

Mobile phones are a main source of internet access for one-quarter of the smartphone population. Some 87% of smartphone owners access the internet or email on their handheld, including two-thirds (68%) who do so on a typical day. When asked what device they normally use to access the internet, 25% of smartphone owners say that they mostly go online using their phone, rather than with a computer. While many of these individuals have other sources of online access at home, roughly one third of these "cell mostly" internet users lack a high-speed home broadband connection.

Smartphone owners under the age of 30, non-white smartphone users, and smartphone owners with relatively low income and education levels are particularly likely to say that they mostly go online using their phones.

Phones operating on the Android platform are currently the most prevalent type of smartphone, followed by iPhones and Blackberry devices.

Demographically, Android phones are especially common among young adults and African-Americans, while iPhones and Blackberry devices are most prevalent among college graduates and the financially well-off.

(Source: Aaron Smith, Senior Research Specialist, Pew Research Center, 07/11/11. Complete report at http://www.pewinternet.org/~/media//Files/Reports/2011/PIP_Smartphones.pdf)


By the way, my company Cirrus ABS can create a mobile version of your site or perhaps optimize your current site for those mobile visitors.

Call or email me: 260-255-HELP or SHoward@CirrusABS.com

Sphere: Related Content