Vijay, on behalf of mobile ad networking geniuses, AdMob, whacked me over these summary points from their February metrics report. The AdMob metrics reports are most definitely becoming essential reading for anyone wanting to track real mobile usage. It’s all very well reading those annual and semi annual research reports, but I want to know what’s going on now-ish.

So here are Vijay’s summary points:

1. iPhone traffic was flat in February. This may be due to the ‘novelty’ factor of people getting iPhones as holiday gifts around December/January, the spirit apparently didn’t grow in February.

Hmm. I wonder if that’s accurate? It does make some sense. If you bought an iPhone around Christmas, one would imagine that you’re continuing to use it as normal. Ergo ‘flat’ stats.

2. Blackberry and Nokia have been fighting out in the Smartphone world as top handset makers to access mobile ads via AdMob. Their rank on the network varies from country to country (see below). Even SonyEriccson wins the battle in specific markets like the UK. This means that basically the Smartphone race is being won differently region by region.

Good news for Sony Ericsson — their handsets accounted for 37% of all ad requests.

3. AdMob continues to add new data points for analysis since launching the metrics consistently since last November. There are more things to compare across regions, handsets and behavior, potentially leading to something new from a product side coming soon…

The moment I saw the first AdMob metrics report last year, I thought they should product-ise it. I look forward to seeing what the offer. AdMob is by no means definitive — you obviously have to be accessing mobile sites containing AdMob spots in order to be tracked, and not all sites feature this, but it’s a good ready reckoner.

You can get the AdMob report free — for the moment, anyway — here: http://www.admob.com/s/solutions/metrics.

Do you remember this survey I wrote about recently?

Got a note through from Beky Hughes regarding a secure mobile working survey. She’s hunting for UK IT journalists to complete this survey — so if you qualify.. or if you maintain a blog, I reckon qualify, go ahead and check it out. I thought it might be relevant for the SMS Text News audience because I’m willing to bet that almost that every reader has used his or her laptop in a public location and when commuting.

Well, there was a bit of an error with the survey software so they weren’t able to get the contact details of some of the respondents. Which means it will be quite difficult to enter you to win an M&S hamper if they don’t know who you are.

So if you took the survey and didn’t see an option to enter your contact details on it, email Beky (bekyh at neesham.co.uk) with your email and postal address just in case. You never know, you might work.

The survey link is here.

Got a note through from Beky Hughes regarding a secure mobile working survey. She’s hunting for UK IT journalists to complete this survey — so if you qualify.. or if you maintain a blog, I reckon qualify, go ahead and check it out. I thought it might be relevant for the SMS Text News audience because I’m willing to bet that almost that every reader has used his or her laptop in a public location and when commuting. Indeed, I’m writing this from a public wifi connection at the Radisson in Marylebone. But I’m using an Apple so I am exhibiting that super-confident you-can’t-hack-this glow.

Meanwhile some scriptkiddie across the road is probably browsing through my files and watching me type this text in real time…

This survey aims to raise awareness of the security risks associated with working on laptops in public places through the personal experiences of commuting IT journalists in the UK.

Please take time to complete the survey. There are 10 questions in total and answers you provide will remain anonymous. We especially encourage you to share your personal experiences of using laptops while commuting, which again will remain nameless.

The closing date for completed surveys is 5.30pm on Monday 31st March 2008. Fully completed survey respondents with the best anecdote will be entered into a prize draw for a Marks & Spencer hamper to the value of £50. In addition, every completed survey respondent will be rewarded with a free Vikuiti Privacy Filter from 3M (worth £20-£50).

How to take part:

• Access the survey by clicking on the link below or copying and pasting into your browser’s address bar:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Ohge7spLjAp3ld2dVusbdA_3d_3d

• Please answer all 10 questions adding additional comment where applicable

• Click on Done >> when you have completed the survey

Got a call from the FTC today.

Michael Becker of iLoop reckoned I should sit in as a panelist on an upcoming Town Hall meeting that the FTC are putting together on the subject of mobile commerce (and with an emphasis on consumer protection).

The Town Hall will explore consumer protection issues arising in the rapidly expanding world of M-commerce. Topics will include:

* The use of mobile-messaging services as instruments of M-commerce;
* Consumers’ ability to control mobile applications;
* The adaptation of advertising to mobile devices, including the challenges presented by small screen disclosures;
* M-commerce practices targeting children and teens;
* Industry best practices in preventing fraud, disclosing costs, and resolving billing disputes;
* Evolving security threats and solutions; and
* Next-generation products and services.

James Trilling, one of the Attorneys supervising the formulation of the meeting, arranged to call me with colleague Ruth, who identified herself as a regular reader. Nice one Ruth!

I’ve got quite a lot of opinions on mobile commerce. In fact I’m overflowing with them, particularly real experiences since I’ve been out using a lot of American mobile commerce services recently. James tentatively asked my perspective on mobile commerce and consumer protection and within moments I was venting forth on PhonepayPlus’s Fine Day, the STOP command and how I was really impressed at being able to buy a ham sandwich via text with Noah’s Gomobo.com service.

I’m not sure if I’ll qualify for the panel, particularly given my realistic experience and direct approach. I can just imagine how some industry players — the Motorola-RAZR-bearing 55 year old tanned mobile industry executives who’ve only just got to grips with this new ‘texting’ lark — might not be that impressed at my highly reality-based perspective on the industry.

It will be interesting to read the results of the panel.

If you’d like to send some viewpoints for consideration the FTC site notes that…

Interested parties may submit written comments or original research until March 17, 2008.

You’ve got a good couple of days to knock something up and send it over. If you’re working in or around the American mobile industry and you’d like to have a say, I recommend you do so. More details on this page.

To Vodafone. I can’t tell you how delighted I was to receive James’ call. Because I’d have been panicking big time if I was using my T-Mobile handset. On an international call you want the clearest line possible. And since I was actually standing in Liverpool Street Station when James called, there was a lot of external noise. And James and Ruth were on a conference phone. It was just brilliant having what felt like a ‘full signal’ to be able to talk to them without worrying about:

a) the call dropping (on my end)
b) poor general audio quality
c) unpredictable scrambling of the audio

Such a relief. Delighted with my Vodafone connection.

The Mobile Marketing Association is on the hunt for papers to be considered for their upcoming June publication. Here’s the request:

There is scant qualitative and empirical evidence to formulate an authoritative definition of mobile marketing and its key enables. In order to address this void and provide a forum to expand the available body of knowledge on the subject of mobile marketing the MMA calls upon academics, students and industry professionals to submit articles to be considered for publication in the IJMM. The following discusses the importance of these articles and details the IJMM submission guidelines

So if you’re a mobile industry professional — and let’s face it, a whopping 70-80% of you reading are just that — you might like to have your say and get your experience published for all to see. Here are some suggested sample topics:

# Review of industry typology, definitions
# Mobile marketing theory, frameworks, constructs, and concepts
# Research methodologies and models suitable for studying mobile marketing
# Effectiveness of mobile marketing across various traditional media channels, i.e. the mobile enhancement of traditional media
# Mobile initiative metrics
# Mobile customer relationship management
# Effectiveness of mobile content, such as ringtones, mobile TV, video, images, etc., within the marketing mix
# Application of multimedia within mobile marketing initiatives
# mCommerce as it pertains to the marketing mix
# Analysis of the various delivery methods: SMS, MMS, mobile internet, IR, IM, Bluetooth, mobile email, mobile portals
# Analysis of future trends and impact of global, environmental, cultural, and/or political activities on mobile marketing
# Use of mobile channel for philanthropy or politics
# Demystification of the technology and elements needed to enhance mobile marketing adoption
# Effective methods for bringing mobile marketing academic research to professionals
# Mobile marketing, a global perspective

I suspect this will be a rather good marketing opportunity — and if this is at all interesting, I strongly recommend you give it a bit of attention and consider contributing.

The Nokia Research Center, together with the University of Cambridge, has created the Morph, a concept phone that allows users to physically stretch and reshape the device according to their usage. The Morph uses nanotechnology, in addition to flexible materials and transparent electronics to create something extremely customisable. It also features self-cleaning capabilities, to eliminate bacteria and germs, a feature that has been making its way onto handsets in Japan for a while now.

The Morph will be shown off at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City from February 24th to May 12th, 2008, as part of the ‘Design and Elastic Mind’ campaign. You can check out the campaign’s official website here, and get more info on the Morph in the official press release.

Technology that exists in the Morph could make its way to the mainstream in 7 years or so. The Nokia Research Center looks beyond Nokia’s existing business and product development to challenge current strategies and to stimulate renewal in the company’s direction. Working closely with all Nokia business units, NRC’s research explores new frontiers in digital services, physical-digital connections, human interaction, data and content technologies, device architecture, and access and connectivity. NRC promotes open innovation by working on research projects in collaboration with universities and research institutes around the world.

StrategyEye reports that …

US mobile phone sales reached USD11.5bn in 2007, when 147m devices were sold, according to research firm NPD. The percentage of smartphone sales doubled in Q4 2007 from the same period the year before, the study says. Smartphones accounted for 12% of sold handsets in the last quarter of last year, up from 6% in Q4 2006. Sales of music-enabled devices also grew fast, jumping to 48% in Q4 2007 from 34% in the same period the year before.

And how many, just HOW MANY of those 147m devices were Motorolas?

It’s still a constant pain, walking about San Francisco, supposedly one of the most connected and tech savvy places on Earth, seeing people arsing about with what is tantamount to decades old technology in the form of various RAZRs and SLVRs. Geez it’s so depressing.

It wouldn’t be so bad if these handsets could do anything better than call or text. Gahhh.

In another ‘duh’ moment, M:Metrics has been keeping track of mobile gaming lately, and found that 75% of the nearly 100 million people they surveyed throughout Western Europe and the U.S. who played a game on their handsets, found that game pre-installed on their phone. Meanwhile, a respectable 38.5 million mobile gamers had downloaded a game, though that’s not really much of an increase over last year’s 35.3 million. Meaning people like gaming, but they can’t be hassled to download new games when there’s a few perfectly good games for free already on their handsets.

I like this quote from Seamus McAteer, Chief Product Architect and Senior Analyst at M:Metrics, who said, “While these devices lend themselves to mobile media consumption, the openness of smart platforms opens up the Internet and frees consumers from the operator deck. To succeed in such a market, game publishers will have to foster new models that may include subscriptions to online gaming communities, ad-funded or subsidized gaming, and physical distribution.”

Physical distribution? Um, N-Gage 1.0 died a few years ago, with that being a major reason. As always, the whole report is here for your perusal.

I asked our resident 15 year old, Issah, to talk to a variety of students at his school in East London, UK, to establish their viewpoint on Sony Ericsson vs LG. I find it absolutely fascinating to read how the normobs (”normal mobile users”) — and in particular, the young — view mobile brands.

Issah’s also given us the age of each respondent. We’ve got a good selection. Here we go:

Saif Janab, 14: “The thing about LG phones is that I don’t think that they were targeted at people my age, I wouldn’t buy one personally.”

Osman Abdul-Moomin, 12: “I don’t think that many teenagers know enough about LG and so they don’t bother buying them.”

Sonia Krakowiak, 15: “LG phones are great they are really durable and have great memory. I think that if they were advertised better they would be really popular among people my age.”

Nasir Mahmood, 15: “LG seems to be aimed more at adult business types and less to teenagers.

James Torrence, 18: “I would not buy an LG phones because they tend to break too easily and they don’t suit my needs. If they improved my problem and aimed some more of their good advertising to people my age, then maybe.”

Sean O’Shea, 17: “I previously owned a Sony Ericsson handset and I was happy with it. I think Sony Ericsson has a great image and is really popular with younger people.”

Sadik Kamara, 13: “I like Sony Ericsson’s Walkman series, it puts lots of emphasis on music and that is what I use my phone for mostly after calling and texting.”

Owen Willoughby, 19: “Teens want everything served to them on a plate. I reckon that is the key to Sony Ericsson’s success, their great advertising.”

Niranjini Thureyesan, 16: I love Sony Ericsson phones because they are stylish, very easy to use and have lots of memory for storing pictures and music.

Nina Smith, 15: “They (Sony Ericsson) do amazing phones, because they have extremely good cameras and the walkman means I don’t need to buy a separate mp3 player.”

John Hagg, 16: “I think that [my] Sony Ericsson is overrated, it is a mediocre phone and everyone owns it. I would go for a more exclusive phone.”

Thanks Issah!

In what has to be the most completely obvious findings, a Local Mobile Search study commissioned by V-enable concluded that free directory assistance services such as 1-800-Goog411 and 1-800-Free411 will soon completely take the market away from paid services offered by traditional service providers.

Honestly, did you really need a study to determine this? One interesting fact out of the whole thing is that apparently, nearly 70% of consumers estimated the price-per-call of traditional services to be around $1, while in reality the cost is usually closer to $2 per call. The free services are typically ad-supported, requiring callers to listen to a short audio ad before being assisted.

For future reference, guys: people, especially mobile phone users, will nearly ALWAYS opt for free, provided they’re aware of the free option.

Issah, the SMS Text News youth reporter (aged 15), is back today with a fascinating look at what the 13-19 year olds in East London think about their mobile network provider. I asked Issah to pose the following question: What mobile network provider do you use and why? (With a follow-up question, will you be staying with them, or ‘how much do you spend’ depending on answers).

I wasn’t aiming for quantitative statistics. What I’m interested in the quality and, in this case, what the youth are thinking about their mobile operator. This makes fascinating reading. The respondents are all from the East London area and known to Issah.

Here we go:

Zain Shahzad: I use T-Mobile and the U-Fix offer because it was the best deal but I am about to change to 02.

Nina Smith: I’m with Orange on one of their contracts because my I was with them on my last phone but I think I will change to T-Mobile.

Nayeem Hussein: My service provider is T-Mobile, because lots of my family and friends use it and so it’s cheaper for me, and I’ll definitely be with them for the rest of this year.

Gurdial Ralez: I’m with Orange, because they gave me lots of texts in my contract. I don’t know if I’m going to be with them for the rest of the year.

Saif Janab: I’m on O2’s network because it came with the phone I guess. Yes, I’ll be with them for the rest of the year.

Nhung Vu: I am using Orange on contract because they offered the best deal with the phone I wanted. I don’t know if I’ll be with them for the rest of the year.

Arron Johnson: I use Pay As You Go on T-Mobile and would usually put about £10 credit a month.

Lewis McCarthy: I’m on Pay As You Go with T-Mobile, topping up around £20 a month. I will stay with them for the rest of the year provided no better offers come up.

Junior Teriba: I am using a phone with T-Mobile’s Pay As You Go. I top up £10-£15 a month. I just got this deal and I’d be happy to stay with it till the end of next year!

Yusuf Bello: I use pay as you go because it is simple to use top up and then use my credit. I put about £20 each month and I can’t see any need to change anytime soon.

Harshil Desai: I use T-Mobile Pay as you Go because it doesn’t involve bills and contracts or any nonsense like that. I top up about £10 a month and will stay with them for as long as possible.

Leevan Blackwood: I have a phone with T-Mobile’s U-Fix contract because my Mum got it for my birthday and she thought it was the best plan but I would prefer pay as you Go. I will stay with them for the rest of this year.

Jeremiah George: I’m on T-Mobile U-Fix because it gives me complete control over what my contract involves. I will stay with it for the rest of the year because it suits me perfectly.

Shahin Islam: I’m on T-Mobile Pay As You go because I heard it was good. I put £20 credit on my phone monthly.

Mahammed Abdillahi: I use T-Mobile because most of my friends use it so it’s cheaper for me to call and text them. I top up about £25 each month.

Colin Mukasa: I use T-Mobile on Pay As You Go because it has cheap rates. I top up about £10 every month. I’ll stay with T-Mobile to the end of the year and next year because I don’t think other companies will offer better rates.

Kido Uzoka: I’m on T-Mobile Pay As You Go because if I don’t my friends are all on it. I top up about £20 a month. I’ll stay with them for the rest of the year.

Aleksandras Alaburda: I’m with T-Mobile on Pay As You Go because I heard about it on T.V. I don’t know much about phone offers so my big brother sorts it all out for me. I usually have about £50 credit on my phone each month. I suppose I’ll stay with them to the end of the year.

Steven Ablitt: I’m on a T-Mobile contract and I have to pay £15 a month. I don’t know if I will stay with them for the rest of the year.

Sandra Adusei: I’m with T-Mobile’s U-Fix £15. I’ll stay with tem till the end of the year because it suits me fine.

Corine Mbaki: I am on T-Mobile, Pay As You Go, because it is cheap. I will be with them until the end of the year.

So. No mention of 3UK or Vodafone at ALL. T-Mobile seems to have cornered the marketplace with o2 and Orange getting a look in.

Issah will be back shortly with some more raw opinion. If you’ve got a particular issue you’d like me to get Issah to put to the youth of East London, mail me and we’ll see what we can do.

Put on your gladrags and get out the champagne if you’re working in the mobile entertainment sector. You’ll be raking it in come 2012…

Music, games and mobile TV will be the major contributors to the global mobile entertainment market which will rise from just over $20 billion in 2007 to more than $64 billion by 2012, according to a new report by Juniper Research. Other mobile entertainment sectors include User-generated Content, Gambling, Adult and Infotainment

Sony Ericsson, Broca, and T-Mobile UK have all gotten together to attempt to solve a common problem - how to measure customer satisfaction following a handset repair. The three have teamed up and decided to use Broca’s cool technology to deliver a satisfaction survey - via SMS - to the customer’s handset after a pre-set period of time.

The coolest thing about Broca’s technology is that customers don’t simply get a boring form which requires them to use their phone’s keypad to type in a response. The system will use Broca’s Acquire data-capture product to deliver a graphical form-based questionaire, which customers can complete by selecting responses from convenient drop-down lists. Somehow, this ONLY uses SMS, without needing GPRS or 3G data connections.

The system also provides Sony Ericsson with the information via a secure web tool, so that they can quickly and effectively use the feedback for future services.

I think this is phenomenal and really shows that Sony Ericsson and T-Mobile UK are concerned for the customer experience are willing to take steps to improve that experience on an otherwise bad experience (the need to have your handset repaired in the first place). Broca’s technology certainly makes this possible, and in a very user-friendly format.

Bravo to all three.

M:Metrics has an interesting report recently on mobile music, stating that 83% of mobile music is sideloaded onto the device. M:Metrics ran the survey all over the world and found that in all cases, users preferred sideloading to downloading directly from their carrier, with the exception of the U.S. and Spain. It’s also interesting that the U.S. has the smallest percentage of the population actually listening to music on their mobiles, a mere 5.7%.

M:Metrics tracked more than just music, however. Here’s a few other interesting comparisons of the U.S. vs the EU:

– Accessed News/Info via Browser: US 12.6 percent, EU 9.1 percent
– Played, Downloaded Mobile Game: US 9.1 percent, EU 8.7 percent
– Watched video: US 4.2 percent, EU 5.1 percent
– Accessed Downloaded Application: US 4.2 percent, EU 2.6 percent
– Sent/Received Photos or Videos: US 20.5 percent, EU 27.5 percent
– Received SMS Ads: US 20.6 percent, EU 53.3 percent

(Courtesy of MoCoNews)

Limbo, the mobile entertainment company, recently commissioned a study of 1,000 U.S. mobile subscribers to get a handle on mobile advertising and usage statistics. They will be updating the study on a quarterly basis, which should provide for some interesting statistics.

In the most recent study, they found that one in three mobile subscribers encountered an ad on their mobile phones in the past three months. Of those, 1/3rd actually recalled the brand being advertised, mostly common names such as Verizon, Chevrolet, and Coca-Cola. The study also showed that most of these ad-viewers received the ad via SMS or MMS, rather than online.

SMS continues to dominate non-voice activity in the U.S., with a whopping 56% participating, while barely half of that use the mobile web or gaming. Demographics showed that men seem to have a 20% higher recall than women, while African-Americans recall twice as many as whites.

82% of active SMS users were under 24, with married people twice the texters of their single peers.

I love studies like this, that show how other people use their phone, don’t you? It’s also good news for companies involved with or looking to get involved with mobile advertising.

Well, get your business plans out everyone, it’s time for another forward looking piece of research that reserves the right to be wildly inaccurate if it’s wrong, or entirely on the button if that’s the way things turn out.

This one, from Juniper, reckons that music rental services are definitely the way to go (notice that Napster isn’t used as the explainer… instead, the good Dr Windsor has referred to Omnifone as an example.. what the hell are Napster up to, eh? It really does wind me up…).

I can well believe it’s accurate. But 3.3 billion? Why not 3.5 billion, you know, round it up to the half mark?

Mobile subscriptions which offer unlimited music downloads on a rental basis are expected to surge in popularity and will provide the majority of mobile revenues derived from original recordings, according to a new report from Juniper Research.

According to the report, the market for subscription-based music rental services will reach $3.3 billion by 2012, eclipsing the market for paid-for original recordings.

According to report author Dr Windsor Holden, “Music rental services such as those offered by Omnifone are incredibly ‘sticky’, in that once consumers have taken the time and effort to build up an extensive playlist, they will be increasingly reluctant to unsubscribe from that service and from the operator, thereby providing a significant boost to ARPU levels.”

I’d just like to point out something my old granddaddy used to say, “Beware of Greeks bearing reports containing the word ’sticky’…”

More stickiness at Juniper.

File this one under the ‘it’s about freakin time’ category. The crew at the Defence Science and Technology Labs in England were working to develop a compound that would protect soldiers’ uniforms during chemical warfare when they realized it would probably have other uses, as well. They ended up with Ion-Mask, and setup a company, P2i, to manufacture and market the stuff.

Ion-Mask is a chemical compound that invisibly bonds to a surface, protecting it from water and dust using plasma. The cool thing about Ion-Mask is that it can be applied to the exterior of a cellphone, but also to the internals, to really protect against moisture seeping in and damaging stuff.

They’re already in talks with 3 major cellphone manufacturers, apparently, and I’m sure that others aren’t far off. This wouldn’t make it possible to go scuba diving with your handset (not that you’d want to) but would make it much more likely to last through a quick dip in the toilet or an accidental dunk in your drinking cup.

Parks Associates has released the results of a study they did on mobile gaming. Apparently, consumers still see their mobile games as mere casual gaming devices, even as developers are creating more high-energy and intensive games.

Looks like more than 55% want to play puzzle games and card games, with more than 30% looking for word and arcade games such as TextTwist (I *LOVE* TextTwist).

I think it would have been interesting to know a bit more about these consumers than just their gaming preferences. What phone do they currently own? More importantly, how old are they?

I think this study is somewhat common sense, though. I mean, think of where you would use your mobile phone for gaming? I think that most people game on their handsets during short waits in their day, such as in line at the supermarket, or on trips to the bathroom, and that sort of thing. Not really conducive to getting into a full level of Doom or something, eh?

The biggest downside to all these latest fancy handsets is that there is limited space for power. Typically the mobiles with the most killer feature set offer the worst battery life. After all, there’s more on the phone to drain that battery. Researchers have spent years trying to come up with a new battery technology to power our portable little friends, with no real progress being made.

Until now. Researchers at Stanford have come up with a way to make existing lithium-ion (check your phone, it’s likely using one) batteries last up to 10 times longer. The trick is in silicon nanowires. You can read the whole article here, but basically, the difference is that currently we use carbon nanowires, which fracture, and Cui, the lead researcher, is using silicon nanowires, which don’t fracture.

If brought to market, this would be a really phenomenal battery breakthrough. Just imagine if cellphone standby times were measured in weeks, not days.

M:Metrics recently conducted a survey of 625 mobile phone users, trying to get a grasp on where mobile phone users are most receptive to ads on their mobiles. The study was commissioned by digital SIDEBAR, a company that specializes in mobile advertising and digital content.

The key purpose of the study was to determine what actions or events on a mobile would be optimal advertising opportunities. A few areas tested included before and after voice calls, data calls, or SMS/MMS, as well as on the home/idle screen. SIDEBAR also wanted to know what types of incentives would encourage consumers to sign up for mobile promotions.

Among the findings, the top 3 preferred actions or events were while the browser is loading a webpage, on the home screen, and after a completed phone call. I find this interesting, as those are mostly times when the consumer is not necessarily paying attention to the screen of their mobile (save for the browser). Also, the top 2 incentives were, not surprisingly, discounts on monthly bills and free minutes.

Personally, I would like to keep my phone clean of ads, it’s the last place that advertisers haven’t been able to break through. I don’t mind them when browsing the mobile web, but ads that are actually served up on my phone are not something I’d be open to, even for free minutes. What about you?

(Image Source: The Economist)

I received an interesting press release today, I suppose it’s from Network Appliance, though it wasn’t explicitly from them. The gist of it was the results of a study conducted by Network Appliance among 2,035 online adults, who were asked questions relating to the types of digital data that they have, as well as their experiences saving (or losing) said data.

It’s a very interesting concept, specifically with mobile phones being such a large player in recording our digital memories. I, for one, use my N95 to take pictures and videos costantly, as well as using it to store all of my contacts and calendar information. Lucky for me, I’m used to synchronizing with my PC. I have Bluetooth setup so that when I walk into my apartment, my phone automatically hooks up with my computer, copying all my pictures/videos/contacts/calendar/etc over to my PC for safekeeping.

The sad reality, though, is that I’m a minority. How many people do you know that keep a backup copy (or 2) of their digital memories? How many friends do you have that have lost their phones, along with their entire contact list? According to NetApp, 40% of Britons admit to not backing up photos, while a shocking 58% store up to 500 photos on their portable devices. Only 6% of those surveyed are even concerned about losing these memories.

How do you backup your digital memories?

Greg over at Mobivity has created a survey asking how you track your mobile web traffic and perform analysis.

If you’ve got a moment, take the survey. I’m looking forward to seeing the results. I reckon most people are doing manual stats (i.e. tracking logs on mobile. or m. sites) or not at all.

I caught this news in the Glasgow Evening Times newspaper this morning. The paper reports that Orange UK customers uploaded a million photos from their handsets to online photo albums in August alone.

Hmm.

Have a read of the story:

MOBILE phones are increasingly being used for services other than calls and texts it seems.

A study of 15.4million Orange customers showed a 37% increase in picture messaging since May this year.

Customers uploaded more than a million photos from their handsets on to online photo albums in August alone, Orange said.

Music downloads to mobile phones are up 15% since May while the volume of games downloaded is up by 3.4%.

Text messaging continues to grow in popularity, with Orange recording a 25% increase their number in the past seven months.

Matthew Kirk of Orange said the role of the mobile phone was changing and added: “Coupled with mobile operator tieups with social network brands such as Bebo, mobile phones are quickly providing customers with another way of connecting with others the way text messaging did 10 years ago.”

Now. A million photo uploads a month is nothing. That’s a very small figure. Not much to be proud of. Not when you’ve got almost SIXTEEN million customers, the vast majority of them all equipped, thanks to your subsidies, with top quality camera phones. It’s also nothing when the UK is knocking back 4 billion text messages a month.

We’re not talking entire MMS traffic though, just ‘photo uploading’.

Interestingly, I can’t tell you what the UK picture messaging traffic is like. The stats on text.it, the MDA’s site, only talk about text messaging (5.3bn in the UK in October, by the way). Why don’t they regularly release picture messaging stats? Simple. It’s because it’s the industry black sheep. The poor second cousin. The uncle that gets a bit annoying after two drinks. Picture messaging, you see, makes the UK mobile operators look like idiots. It’s Emperor’s new clothes time. Text worked. Picture messaging, when introduced, didn’t. Finally it was more or less fixed but by then, the damage was done and the pricing was just stupid.

Only now is the market in the UK changing. Only now that picture messaging is included in many Flext style bundles has it gained general acceptance and wider use.

So I’m encouraged. I’m happier. I’m pleased the industry has more or less got over that one. The fact that Orange are reporting a 37% increase in traffic sounds good. It correlates with my experience. I see a lot more people using the MMS medium. That can only be good.

Good morning! Time for an ultra quick SMS Text News survey. I’m wondering how many of us will be checking (work related) emails over Christmas? I’m betting quite a lot. 70%?

Let’s see.

I’ve made a surveymonkey — there’s only one question. Click Here to take survey.

The question is thus:

Over this Christmas, will you be checking your emails?

- Yes, via my Blackberry
- Yes, via my mobile phone
- Yes, via my computer
- No way, I’ll be relaxing!

I’ll publish the results in a few days. Meanwhile, anyone care to guess the percentages?

I think the results will be something like this:

- Yes, via my Blackberry: 45%
- Yes, via my mobile phone: 20%
- Yes, via my computer: 25%
- No way, I’ll be relaxing! 10%

If you guess correctly, you win a Mars Bar!

It’s all go at mobile advertising giant, AdMob. I had a note in from Jason Spero, VP of Marketing there.

Here’s his email text:

We’ve just released the second monthly AdMob Mobile Metrics with October data.  In response to overwhelming interest in the initial September report, we have added additional data to include the top 20 handsets per country market.

Some observations from the October data:

- AdMob Network impressions were up 3%, driven by growth in Europe
- Motorola KRZR gained US share to claim the top handset position
- Apple iPhone doubled US share from 0.4% to 0.9%
- The top 20 devices represent 50% of impressions in individual markets

If you’re not already familiar with the AdMob Mobile Metrics, this is a new report with market level data derived from data collected by AdMob.  We hope that this data snapshot will provide insight into trends in the mobile ecosystem and expect that this data will be valuable for site publishers, advertisers and content and application developers.

Find the report here

This is potentially one of the world’s most valuable pieces of mobile market data in the context of the mobile internet. It’s all very well getting a report from Gartner to tell you that a billion people ‘might’ do something… but this data from AdMob is straight from the horse’s mouth, as it were. The AdMob stats only cover handsets they’ve actually tracked from people using mobile internet. Yes there are issues if you’re a data realist (not all sites run AdMob etc etc) but it’s still a fascinating snapshot.

You can, with a reasonably accurate look of confidence on your face, explain to people that 31% of mobile internet users are browsing with a Nokia. Annoyingly, the Motorola RAZR is the most popular handset version, worldwide. Sony Ericsson, RIM, Samsung and Sanyo models also feature in the top 20. No LG handsets featured in the top 20. Oh dear.

A vomit enducing 14% of US mobile internet browsers do so with their piece of shit Motorola RAZRs and KRZRs. Goodness me. An AdMob advert must take up half the sodding screen on a shitty Motorola browser. We move on. Good to see the iPhone impressions lift from 0.4 to 0.9% in October which indicates the devices are getting a bit of use on the web.

More from the report?

Well, 65% of Indian mobile users are on a Nokia. Top marks Nokia.

But in the UK? Dramatically different. The top manufacturer for UK mobile internet browsers is Sony Ericsson (32%) followed by Nokia (24%), Samsung (9%), Motorola (Shit - 5%), NEC (3.8% — this must surely be the 3UK installed base of NEC handsets? Who else is flogging NECs? They don’t even operate in the UK handset market any more!), LG (3.5%) and ZTE (2.8%).

ZTE, in case you were wondering, are the China handset manufacturer. Although I couldn’t pick a ZTE out of a Police line up at 10 paces.

How in the world did a ZTE F866 handset get to be the fifth most popular handset in the UK for mobile internet browsing?

Ahh. Did a bit of research. 3UK launched the ZTE F866 model, way back.

Sony Ericsson K800i users are the most active mobile internet users in the UK according to these stats (5.6% of impressions).

And Windows Mobile? Rubbish.

Absolutely rubbish. They’re not even on the list. So bad, they’re lumped in with the ‘other’ category. To be expected though. They’re hardly consumer handsets.

You can have a look at the AdMob metrics here.