PercentMobile on, “Mobile OS web-browsing share” by @marcoarment
reblogged from: marco
Some people are criticizing John Gruber’s piece on iPad and Android browser share because Apple-product owners are more likely to visit his site (a bias he clearly acknowledged). I was curious to see more widespread numbers, so I got permission to post Tumblr’s OS percentages from Google Analytics for the tumblelog network.
This includes most human visits to all Tumblr-hosted blogs, not the tumblr.com site itself, to best represent “average” people online who happen to come across Tumblr-hosted sites, not just Tumblr members. Granted, this still isn’t perfect, but it’s probably the biggest and least biased sample that we’ll be able to find in the indie-Mac-pundit world.
Left: Including “normal” computers. Right: Only mobile devices.
Sample from May 9-15, 2010, as measured by Google Analytics.The most surprising part of this, to me, is how well the Macintosh is faring against Windows. But in the mobile space, Android is actually doing quite well, given its tiny installed base relative to iPhone OS. My premise in this post may have been completely wrong.
The iPad is putting up an especially impressive performance given that it’s only available in the U.S. so far, has only been on sale for 6 weeks, costs at least $500, isn’t subsidized, isn’t always in your pocket, and isn’t being given away in two-for-$99 sales by the largest cellular provider in the country.
PercentMobile:
@marco (and Tumblr), thanks for the breath of fresh air.
Most of the numbers we see online are from mobile analytic services that primarily report on people visiting apps or ads on iPhone, Android, or Blackberry devices. Traffic from the rest of the mobile ecosystem is usually underrepresented and as such marginalized.
The data from the tumblelog network can certainly provide a more realistic sample.
Unfortunately, improving the sample is only part of the equation. The other part is correctly collecting and processing that tumblelog data. Google Analytics is not mobile-specific enough to get the job done.
The report you share shows that Smartphone traffic to tumblelog sites represents approximately 93% of tumblelog mobile device traffic. Trends across PercentMobile’s network of sites tells us that the Smartphone crowd should more likely weigh in at around 47%-68% of total mobile traffic. As such, we suspect considerable Feature Phone (and lesser device traffic) is present but not counted. What does that mean to Tumblr? Hard to place a number on it since we’re at arm’s length to your data but you may have up to 2X the mobile traffic you think you have.
“PercentMobile spots iPhone OS 4 on Verizon!!”
JUNE 7th: Mobile Monday NY Relaunch Event (& Party)
RSVP to this free event at: http://momonyjune2010.eventbrite.com/
This month Mobile Monday New York is partnering up with Mobile Monday Brooklyn to throw a huge summer kickoff event at 230 Fifth on the roof.
We are planning the event at the beginning of Internet Week, and we are also teaming up with MMA to kick off their Forum New York events.
The topic is mobile advertising and we will have speakers and demos from Crisp Wireless, AdMeld, Jumptap and MMA. Each company will give a brief overview of what they do and their thoughts on the market, followed by demos on the side for more detailed conversations.
Make sure to stay until the end because Jumptap will raffle off an iPad!
Speakers:
- Will Nann, National Director of Ad Sales-Crisp Wireless
- Marc Theermann, VP, Mobile- AdMeld
- Michael Becker, Managing Director, North America- MMA
- Paran Johar, CMO-Jumptap
Logistics
Location: 230 Fifth 230 Fifth Ave New York, NY 10001
Date: June 7th at 7 pm
Cost: Free – but registration is required to attend.
Cocktails: Provided
Parking: Garage at 800 6th Avenue. Entrance is on 28th Street between 6th and Broadway (South side)
Transportation:
Subways:
N, R, W to ‘28th Street and Broadway’ Station Stop
F, V, B, D to ‘23rd Street and 6th Avenue’ Station Stop
6 Train to ‘28th Street and Park Avenue’ Station Stop
Buses:
M2 and M3 to Fifth Avenue and 27th Street
M5, M6, and M7 to Broadway and 27th StreetThis event is possible thanks to generous sponsorships from AdMeld, Jumptap and Crisp Wireless.
PercentMobile Startup Pitch at the Mobile Premier Awards in Barcelona (Alexis Rondeau Presenting.)
Thank you dotopen for making this video available.
See also, “PercentMobile Takes Home the GOLD for Early Stage Innovation at the Mobile Premier Awards.”
In Defense of BlackBerry…
Over the past several years, the public mobile metrics reports by AdMob (a mobile advertising network that is in the process of being acquired by Google) have been instrumental in proving the relevance of the mobile web. AdMob’s March 2010 Mobile Metrics[1] report illustrates the rise of Android OS[2], a mobile operating system open sourced by their soon to be parent company, Google. According to the report, mobile web usage of the Android OS now eclipses usage of iPhone OS in the US. While we cannot confirm this, the rise of Android OS can be supported by our own data and by the mere fact that in the first 4 months of 2010 alone, 20 new Android OS Experience Phones[3] entered the market worldwide.
PercentMobile sees US mobile Web usage very differently from Admob.
In the March 2010 AdMob Report, they state that the BlackBerry RIM OS[4] has a mobile web usage share in the US of a mere 4%. This is in a country where RIM leads in total smartphone subscribers[5], has a long standing history in the corporate world, and where its president was almost inseparable from his BlackBerry during the election media blitz. At PercentMobile, our numbers state that RIM OS represents 22% of US mobile web usage, composed of Verizon customers with a 44% share and Sprint PCS, T-Mobile and ATT with shares from 18% to 14%.
How Can This Be Explained?
There are multiple factors that can influence the numbers like the entropy of site demographics used for the analysis.
One of the most outstanding factors is that BlackBerry Internet traffic is routed through RIM’s proxy servers in Canada. AdMob mistakenly identifies this mobile web traffic as originating in Canada rather than the US. This contributes to a significant undercount of RIM OS share estimates in the US market.
Another example of the same type of misidentification occurred when we recently tried to log into Facebook from a new T-Mobile BlackBerry Bold and got a security warning that we were logging in from an unknown location and therefore could not be granted access. The next morning, we got a message from Facebook stating that somebody from Canada had tried to log into the account while we were in NYC.
In order to identify the source of a RIM OS request, a mere lookup of IP address of the request is insufficient. It is necessary to look beyond the RIM proxy in order to determine the true source network operator.
At PercentMobile, our mobile-specific business rules are designed to present you with the actual source networks of your visitors rather than the locations of service proxies such as RIM, Novarra, and Opera.
Our Findings
We come to the conclusion that iPhone OS leads mobile web usage in the USA with 48% followed by RIM OS with 22% and Android OS around 5%. We feel that it is imperative that analytics reports are as accurate as possible, and question why AdMob has not corrected their underexposure of RIM OS in the US - a terrific operating system with a large user base and significant share of the mobile Web ecosystem.
References
- http://metrics.admob.com/2010/04/march-2010-mobile-metrics-report/
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_operating_system
- http://analytics.percentmobile.com/public/the_rise_of_the_experience_phone
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_In_Motion
- http://metrics.admob.com/2010/04/45-million-us-smartphone-users-comscore/
How We May Use Mobile Phones (or Login Will Replace Sim Cards)
Several months ago we participated in, “mobile trends for the next 10, a collaborative outlook” - curated by Rudy de Waele (@mtrends). As part of our contribution we predicted, “Login will replace Sim Cards.” What follows is a reboot of a conversation we started a year ago and hope you want to have today.
Have a look in your closet or suitcase. You have multiple shirts, jackets, sweaters and a decent amount of socks and underwear. Depending on the occasion, the weather, the time of day, the mood, how well you slept or other conditions you choose a configuration of your clothes. If you slept bad you might choose your very soft sweater, a favorite since 10 years; if you feel super stellar and had a good morning workout you might put on a real modern combo you just got last week. If you have an important job interview you will surely put yourself in clean, respectable clothes. Or maybe you have a date so you will put yourself into something interesting or mysterious. This is not to say that these changes of mood are only reflected in your clothes, of course your whole mannerism is different as well. But that is not the point. Point is, you choose your clothes in anticipation of things to come.
Now imagine for a second a world in which you have to choose a single style that you must wear without mercy for a year straight. What does that kind of relation to an object remind you of?
… it is your beloved mobile phone …
Once chosen, you most likely have to stick with it for a long time. You take it everywhere and use the same phone for all occasions. What’s wrong with that? Nothing really, our phones are born of studies to determine the most popular features for a certain demographic. That’s how most consumer goods come to life. For you as a customer there is always a compromise, a device will fit most of what you desire but not everything. And that is not all, some of your selection criteria are transient and mutate over time; one day you wish had mini projector build in with a very big qwerty keyboard and the other you wish you had one of those real small phones whose battery can last for a week. A super rare Maywa Denki phone shows off your style at a nightclub but its no good to the meeting with your landlord as he might get freaked out by the screaming pulsating exterior color. At the sober business meeting that involves your whole team you don’t want to draw attention with your device, you want to blend in and be a team player, isn’t that the reason you are wearing a suit?
The holy grail of the phone universe is still one device that does it all: Phone, Music Player, Route Planer, Web Browser, Still Camera, Video Camera, Chat Client, Compass, Projector, Office Document Viewer, FM Radio, Game Platform, e-book, Travel Guide, baby monitor, Waterproof, biometric security, Ultrasonic Mosquito Defense, Heart Beat Monitor, Lie Detector, etc . Still, we know how that can end with features galore that confuse and are hard to find when you need them the most.
So, why don’t we have multiple phones? Why can’t we just take the one that fits our mood or the occasion, same as we do with our clothes? Can we not do that already? Certainly you can: just sync your phone first with your laptop or server (this usually doesn’t include your media, call list etc), open the back of your phone and take out the batteries to get to your Sim Card, do another phone surgery and insert your Sim Card to the new device all the while making sure you keep track of each small piece for the next time; not what we call a seamless transition. There is no guarantee that the Sim Card even works and can be considered a violation in your terms of usage. Imagine somebody telling you that combining your D&G shorts with your Nike sneakers is a violation of the terms of usage punishable with 5 years in style prison.
Now, simply take a phone in your hand and start using it. You already do that with scissors, cameras, pens, notebooks, silver ware, and books. You don’t think, you just start using it. You have a drawer with your favorite devices and take the one you want for today. As easy as that. How do I tell the phone that today is its day? One way would be signing in with your username and password, the phone you used in the past gets deactivated. Or if the phone has a fingerprint or iris scanner I could use that for signing in. How about wearing a piece of jewelry with an RFID chip embedded to reprogram the phone when touched by your ring. Your virtual SIM-card. That would be great since you probably wear the jewelry all the time just like the key to your apartment. You need to have some security measures for your devices so that not everybody can touch them and take them over. That might require a list of people allowed to use your devices such as your friends. Using a pen as an analogy again, you ask your friend to use his pen to make notes if you need to. Or ask your brother if you can have its car for the weekend. If you should need to borrow a friends phone to use and access your data for a while, why not?
Let’s discuss some of the consequences of an approach like this. A new richness in form and functionality where design doesn’t need to meet the neutral ground but can go in all kinds of directions. Manufacturers could sell even more phones with the barrier of the one to one relationship broken down. And it hopefully will open the market to new niche manufacturers.
Used Photos
1. photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/perspicacious/3228112810/
License
“How We May Use Mobile Phones” by Stan Wiechers is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at http://www.merkwelt.com/people/stan/how_we_may_use_cell_phones.html
