PercentMobile Maps - 2nd Quarter 2010
Welcome to our first round of PercentMobile Maps. Our goal is to introduce you to the wonderfully diverse global mobile ecosystem. All maps are based on second quarter 2010 visits to sites that are tracked with our mobile analytics system.
Nokia Devices Web Usage
Lets start with the CEO searching and share dropping Finnish giant. Once globally perceived as the mobile industry leader, Nokia is now struggling with its quickly aging operating systems and number pad phones. While it currently has a stronghold in the largest and most populous countries, most of those phones are quite old and many will soon need to be replaced. The large majority are inexpensive phones with less profit margin and no attractive digital media store.
Apple Devices Web Usage
A phenomenon, Apple rose from nothing in the summer of 2007 to a mobile superpower with amazing interface concepts, fantastic web experience, attractive applications and its iTunes digital media store. It speaks to their success that nearly everyone is trying to copy them.
BlackBerry Devices Web Usage
It used to be that the most recognizable feature of a businessman or politician was their suit. Now it is the symbiotic relationship with their BlackBerry device. Joining their ranks are teenagers who pump out text messages quickly thanks to BlackBerry’s built-in QWERTY keyboard, optimized for “thumbing.” An indication of BlackBerry’s success is that several companies such as Nexian, ZTE, Tianyu, Videocon and ti-phone are attempting to clone these iconic devices.
Samsung Devices Web Usage
The South Korean Conglomerate brand is found on everything from Chips, LCD Displays, Refrigerator, and Ships to the shirts of the English Premier League Team the Chelsea Football Club. Their mobile phones run Bada OS, Windows Mobile, Symbian, Android and their own proprietary Operating System. It is perhaps the most diverse cell phone company, which is not surprising given its mothership nature.
WiFi Usage
Mobile phones with WiFi connectivity began to appear in 2006 with the Nokia N93. Now, most Smart and Experience Phones come equipped standard with WiFi. Their promise is faster speed and cost-free mobile browsing. Downsides include heavy battery usage, and not all user interfaces make it easy to select a WiFi network. The map below shows how actual users of WiFi-enabled mobile phones take advantage of the WiFi feature. Please note that we have excluded Non-Phones such as iPad, iPod, Sony PSP, etc. from this map.
Device Age
Last but not least, let’s have a look at the average release date of mobile devices used by country. Most countries in the Americas and Western Europe have newer devices, while most countries in Asia and the Middle East have slightly older devices, and many African countries have the oldest devices.
PercentMobile’s Take On @drbarnard’s, “Anti-Competitive AND Potentially Creepy”
“Oh, and there’s also AdMob’s incredibly flakey “Mobile Metrics” reports. They do such a hatchet job on those it must drive Apple nuts”
— Anti-Competitive AND Potentially Creepy - @drbarnard (via @rafer)
…and Cult of Mac on AdMob, “Don’t be surprised to see a report six months from now showing Apple’s mobile web traffic dropping by half or more. All of which suggests that a mobile ad network isn’t the best source for reporting the totality of mobile web traffic. Wouldn’t it be nice if all the mobile carriers got together and shared what they knew?”
PercentMobile’s Take
So who’s report on the OS war is closer to reality? AdMob showing their parent company Google winning with Android? Or, Apple’s sources of statistics that show a very different story.
As an independent mobile analytics provider we perceive the ecosystem differently. We ran a report on a sample of the mobile Web traffic that flows through PercentMobile’s network.
This is what we saw:
…and Blackberry (RIM) does better then anyone gives them credit for.
