If you had asked me this question around 3 months back, you would have got an emphatic no!
It doesn’t seem logical! Internet itself is in its infancy in our country with just a 3% penetration. PC penetration itself will take time to hit 20%. How possibly can mobile overtake the traditional form of accessing the internet?
I’d written a post nearly 2 years back on – What is going to increase GPRS usage in India…
Social Networking would be the key I’d said and that’s exactly what is happening. I’m hooked to Facebook and Twitter via my phone and so are a lot more people. Micro-blogging is a growing phenomenon. There is a constant need to tell all your friend what you are up to?
Having coffee in a CCD, savouring a sizzler in your favourite joint, caught a beautiful sunset at Marine Drive – people are tweeting/fbooking this constantly.
In my opinion, entertainment will be limited to the PC. Though youtube is available on mobile phones and 3gp versions of videos can be seen, the usage is still limited. Flash is not supported on most phones. So unless we get Flash/Flex compatible smart phones at a cost of Rs 5000 and 3G/WiFi connectivity everywhere, entertainment will never really be that huge on the mobile in India.
But where Mobile is really having its impact is Email. Working professionals are constantly checking their mail. Mails often tend to have links and these links are the ones which get clicked. A lot of textual content is getting consumed via mobile phones. Local Search though not tremendously popular is slowly making its mark. Because of services like Guruji and JustDial, one can find the telephone no. of almost any eating joint or movie hall on the go. The future will see heavy usage of ticketing applications. Applications which are built around convenience. Mobile booking of movie tickets etc.
Here are some international figures to ponder on:
In November, 34 percent of mobile phone owners in Western Europe who visited social networking sites accessed social media exclusive of all other mobile Web content. With 12.1 million users in Western Europe (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K.), mobile social networking grew 152 percent from November 2007 to November 2008. (Source)
I’m not sure if there are any reliable figures of Mobile Internet penetration figures in India, but here are some international figures:
US – 19%
France – 28%
Germany – 34%
Italy – 34%
Spain – 26%
UK – 24%
Note – These are figures of Internet users who also access the net via Mobile. The major difference which we are going to witness in India is that because of our low PC penetration and high mobile penetration, we are going to get a lot of people who are going to be using only their mobile phone for accessing the internet.
Another interesting fact:
Mobile Phone Web Users equalled PC based Internet users in Japan back in September 2007!
please put a figure for current users for internet and mobile internet users….cos thats what this post was about..
I am sorry to say you are very wrong.
What do you consider as mobile Internet usage? Downloading a ringtone or a game in my opinion IS not an Internet usage from a mobile phone.
I am a techie, I spend almost 14 hours a day on the PC, connected to Internet all the time. I constantly keep reading my mails, RSS feed updates from various sources, converse with friends on IM, take a peek at my Facebook, Orkut and LinkedIn accounts and do many more things online BUT I don’t use my mobile for any of these!
The small screen of the mobile and pathetic speed of GPRS or even WiFi on a mobile is what discourages me every time I try to surf the net.
There are lots of things that can’t be done on a mobile –
I can’t log into my net banking account from my mobile. Most of them require IE.
No Flash so – can’t play games on Zapak, can’t watch the videos or listen to streaming songs.
These problems aren’t going to go away any time soon. Even with 3G I doubt the speed will improve to match the broadband on PC. And in the initial phases 3G will be quite expensive and won’t be available everywhere.
It will be at least another decade before there will be serious usage of Internet on mobile. Yes a decade.
How many people have 3G handsets? Another thing is that most of the handsets in India are low end. Everyone knows the state of high end phones in India. iPhone was super flop. As long as carriers are guarding the gates to Internet on mobile with an iron hand, it will not take off.
Hi,
The user experience will be the ceiling on the projected off the charts growth for mobile internet.
You can only do so much with a small screen.
IMO, it will remain a utility tool rather than a hardcore user tool.
Have posted on this previously on my blog
http://social-media-maverick.blogspot.com/2009/02/mobile-internet-users-to-take-over.html
Cheers
Hemant M
its just internet – whether from pc or mobile doesnt matter. its not wap anymore, you have full internet on mobile, so i dont think mobile internet as a term holds much significance in the first place
@ Raghav: I don’t think there are any reliable Indian figures for Mobile Internet consumption out there.
The latest Comscore report puts India’s online population at 32 million (Makes us Rank 7 in no. of total users online)
I would guess that 3-5% of these guys might be accessing internet from their mobiles too. By this i don’t mean VAS downloads etc.
I’m sure Mobile Ad Networks like mKhoj will have some more detailed figures.
@ Yash: I don’t know what you are dis-agreeing with and putting me wrong. I think you’ve commented way before you even read the whole post. Not once in the post have I mentioned VAS and I’ve even talked about what is holding back mobile internet usage.
@ Hemant: Agree with you totally. Utility and convenience.
Yash :
So you are a “techie” and obviously think that everyone has a similar use for the internet as you do. While you while away your life sitting in front of your PC, many people in the world 1) haven’t got a PC; 2) have a life; 3) have a mobile.
Mobile phones are likely to remain the cheaper option for most who wish to communicate, and as they become web enabled they will start to use them. Most will do low intensity tasks like check the times of trains, check the weather, maybe pick up email. Most of the things you mention aren’t content rich functions, so speed isn’t as critical as you seem to think. You find it convenient to access these things since you have a PC in front of you. Most normal people will have a mobile in front of them, and will find that most convenient.
The hardware is important. The penetration of the iPhone shows that. But if you think that you need not mug up on mobile programming skills, well, prepare to become just another dinosaur of the IT industry.
Cheers