Despite the economic gloom, a new study into mobile data usage has revealed customers are adopting the service like never before. The findings, released by Orange in its latest Digital Media Index report, claimed it added 1.3 million 3G customers since the research was last conducted around 9 months ago.
This latest report states the upsurge in mobile data has been driven by improvements to devices designed to access mobile data, such as USB dongles and more advanced mobile handsets, matched with new price plans specifically created to increase mobile internet relevancy to consumers.
Key findings from the summer/autumn report included:
- Dongle subscriptions surged--an increase of over 2,000 per cent since January 2008.
- 3G customers soared by 86 per cent.
- Mobile search increased by 30 per cent--while local search increased by 100 per cent.
- Social networking took off--with over 166 million page impressions on average per month.
- Music downloads increased by 10 per cent-–with September specifically seeing a record 300,000 full tracks downloaded.
Commenting on the study, Paul Jevons, director of products, portals and services for Orange, said mobile was no longer simply a channel for brands to deliver packaged content in a manner of their choosing. "Instead the mobile phone has become a truly interactive channel that fosters the formation of communities through social networking sites such as Facebook and Bebo."
For more:
- go to 3G.co.uk
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