AdMob Mobile Handset usage report
AdMob Handset Usage report shows strong growth in touch screen & wi-fi enable devices.
The report also highlights the rapid growth in usage of mobile Web sites and applications on new devices in the past year... In September 2009, the list of the top 10 devices includes five with touchscreens, six with Wi-Fi capabilities, and six with application stores. These devices are responsible for a much higher percentage of mobile usage than their share of handsets sold. However, feature phones like the Samsung R450 and Motorola RAZR V3 still represent 60 percent of ad requests in the US. The strong mobile Web usage on these feature phones is likely driven by unlimited data plans.
Keeping in mind the last sentence, expect the 60% of ad request from feature phones to drop quickly over the next 1 -2 years as these contracts expire.
The general push to smart phone, touch screens with Wi-Fi capabilities continues. As this moves forwards, developers should be pushing mobile web enable functionality. Apps play a strong roll in the current environment as users are not happy with the mobile web experience. A bit like AOL circa 1997 vs the internet. As mobile web standards grow to support better functionality, and developers learn to use these tools to make the experience better, there will be less need for dedicated apps. They won’t go away, but there will be more room for mobile web tools.
I don’t how long this will take, but I believe it will migrate from mobile-app centric to mobile-web centric functionality before too long.
Some mobile web development perspectives: W3.org/mobile. wapreview.com, John Blossom.
