BII MOBILE INSIGHTS: More Proof That The World Is Going Mobile

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The World Is Going Mobile (KPCB via Forbes)
There’s no denying that more of us are using mobile devices, and that it’s changing the way we not only communicate, but live. Take a look at the latest presentation by respected venture capitalist Mary Meeker entitled Internet Trends. Here were her top 5, eye-opening stats:

Nearly half of all American kids want an iPad for Christmas
Global mobile traffic now represents roughly 13% of Internet traffic
Nearly a third of all American adults own a tablet or e-reader
There are 5 billion mobile phone users in the world, but only 1 billion smartphone users
Android is growing faster than anything

Her sentiment was echoed in BI Intelligence's recent presentation, The Future Of Digital, which was presented to kick off Business Insider's recent conference, IGNITION: Future of Digital.

What if Mobile Ads Don’t Catch Up? (KPCB via All Things Digital)
The mobile web is booming. But the mobile ad market is pretty small. Short-term, that means ads that run on phones are much cheaper than ads that run on PCs, often by as much as 80%. Advertisers will eventually catch up to their audience. If people are spending lots of time on their phones, marketers will follow the eyeballs. Right? That’s the gist of Meeker's argument:

ad spending kpcb

But here’s the counter-argument, from Bernstein Research’s Todd Juenger. His argument boils down to this: Yes, lots of people are spending lots of time on the web, and now on their phones. But that doesn’t increase marketers’ desire to spend more money there, it just creates more advertising inventory, which might actually end up decreasing the total amount spent on those ads. We’ve seen plenty of evidence of for this argument in the desktop web world. People keep spending more time there, but publishers have to keep slashing their rates to attract ad dollars. If the same scenario plays out on mobile, that gap might remain there for a long time. To learn more, check out the recent BI Intelligence report, What's Holding Back Mobile Advertising?

Mobile Internet On The Rise Across The Board (KPCB via Forbes)
Mobile trends and the continued proliferation of smartphones around the world get, as usual, get a lot of attention in Meeker's report. The report shows that mobile devices are responsible for generating 13% of all internet usage worldwide, compared to just 4% in 2010 and 10% in her most recent mid-year report.

mobile growth

In certain regions of the globe, this trend is even more pronounced, with mobile internet traffic in India reaching 60% and eclipsing desktop internet traffic. This pattern is likely to continue as mobile phones and tablets represented 24% of all online sales on Black Monday, compared to just 6% two years ago. While iOS outsold Android by 4 to 1 on that particular day, Meeker's report shows that Android is in fact growing 6x faster than Apple's iPhone.

How Mobile Is Waging War On The Living Room (BI Intelligence)
For over a decade, big tech companies, including IBM, Apple, and Microsoft, have been promising to take over the living room. But home entertainment has proved a hard business to crack, and consumers remain tied to their TVs and panoply of set-top devices. In a new report from BI Intelligence, we examine the distinct scenarios via which mobile devices will wage their battle for the living room, analyze what happens when screens collide and how the new multi-screen living room will actually function, and detail the opportunities being presented to mobile developers, advertisers, and device manufacturers.

The State Of Online Video: Mobile Video (SundaySky)
comScore reported that more than half of tablet users watched video content this year, compared to only 20% of smartphones users. However, eMarketer is forecasting double-digit growth of video consumption among smartphones, a 22% increase in 2012 to 70.8 million users. Mobile video is racing into the top five video advertising alternatives, according to Forrester and the National Association of Advertisers. When surveyed, “Which of the following video alternatives to the 30-second spot, if any, will you likely spend more on in 2012?” a majority 33% US marketers responded with “mobile video ads.” This is significant because just two years ago, mobile video advertising was not even an option for respondents. We will continue to see an increase in mobile video ads as we see more consumers shopping and spending via mobile and tablet devices. These devices delivered $21 billion of mobile commerce sales in 2012, accounting for about 9.2% of all ecommerce sales this year.

Mobile Search Budgets Increasing 307% For Smartphones (IgnitionOne)
Search marketers spent 307% more of their budgets on smartphone ads and 231% on tablets to date in the fourth quarter 2012 compared with the prior year, according to IgnitionOne. The gap in cost per clicks (CPCs) between mobile devices and PCs remain strong, with PCs earning 28% higher CPCs than smartphones and 36% higher CPCs than tablets for the quarter. Advertisers had a productive Thanksgiving weekend with search spend up 29% over last year. Impressions by 29%; transactions 27%; and clicks, 24%, but the average order value (AOV) slid 2.7%, advertisers managed to increase revenue 23% compared to the 2011 shopping weekend. Across the board, to-date fourth quarter spending rose 15% compared with the year-ago quarter among IgnitionOne clients.

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