With global smartphone penetration estimates from Nielsen coming in at roughly 17% ( http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/with-smartphone-adoption-on-the-rise-opportunity-for-marketers-is-calling/), Motally analyzed October 2009 data to determine whether similar ratios existed for smartphone and non-smartphone web browsing.  We were fairly certain smartphone users browsed mobile sites more often, but we wanted to know by how much and provide the industry with quantifiable data that accurately measured the situation.  As the results show below, the results are pretty astonishing.  Despite only making up 17% of the total phone market, smartphones account for a remarkable 91% of all browsing activity on Motally tracked sites.

Source: The Nielsen Company                                                                                     Source: Motally, October 2009

Note: Smartphone is defined as any phone with an Android, Apple, Microsoft, Palm, RIM or Symbian operating system.

Motally tracks a complete range of mobile website and application metrics as a service to the mobile community.  In this analysis, we looked at all October 2009 data from Motally tracked sites.  We suspected that smartphone activity would be high, but we did not expect for it to account for a whopping 91% of all traffic.  For smartphones to be responsible for that level of mobile browsing activity while only accounting for 17% of the market confirms that smartphones are fundamentally changing the industry and supports the business case that mobile websites cannot be ignored and must be an integral part of any marketing or brand awareness strategy.

Interestingly enough, in the course of our analysis we discovered a trend related to individual visits that at first blush seemed counter-intuitive.  We found that despite the dominance of smartphone activity in total mobile browsing, non-smartphone users on a per visit basis actually spent more time at a site and viewed more pages than smartphone users.  At first these metrics seemed counter-intuitive as increased time and page visits for a website are typically associated with an engaged user, however, in this case we believe that these metrics suggest the opposite. We believe these metrics suggest a less rewarding experience as non-smartphone users struggle to navigate through sites, and the pages take longer to load and to read.  

 Source:  Motally October, 2009

In summary, we interpret these results as being further evidence that the buzz around smartphones is not hype and that smartphones should continue to be promoted as a way toward a more engaging and interactive mobile experience.  We know that this is not a new assertion, however, we hope that with the quantifiable metrics presented here we provide our customers more tools for making informed decisions and driving the industry forward.  

Please check back in the coming weeks as Motally explores whether smartphone activity varies country to country or industry to industry (e.g. search sites vs. social networking sites). 

Or, if there is a topic you would like to learn more about, feel free to drop us a line.

Thanks,

The Motally Team