Mobile Devices Now More Popular Than TV Globally. How About Your Country?

By Tech Wire Asia | 5 March, 2012

According to a recent survey released by InMobi, half of Singaporeans rely heavily on mobile devices to access the Internet, with 29% finding relevant products and services nearby, and 47% using their handsets as primary medium influencing their purchasing decisions. This is good news for mobile advertising networks, with 71% of surveyed users say they are comfortable with mobile ads.

Visitors walk by a billboard of Samsung Electronics Galaxy Note at the firm's headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, in this file photo. Mobile devices like smartphones and tablets have surpassed TV as the primary means of accessing content in Asia and around the world. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Ease of use (50%), availability (38%) and privacy (31%) are key drivers behind the increase of mobile web usage, which is driven by social media, entertainment and email. InMobi’s network data report reveals that the Singapore mobile ad market grew by 30% to over 469 million ad impressions in Q3 2011.

According to the report from the same source, Apple is definitely a favorite in Singapore, with six devices, including the iPad and iPod, on the top 20 list of mobile devices. Even though iOS continues to lose share to Android, Apple’s platform still dominates the market by 44%, followed by Android with 31% and RIM with 9% share.

In Indonesia, a study involving 1,077 respondents shows around 82% using their mobile as the exclusive means of accessing the web. 24% of their time was spent for social media activities, and another 20% for entertainment such as music and videos. This market consumes media is 36% of the time using their mobile device, while they only watch TV 27% of the time. In Malaysia, the figure is lower. From 1,091 mobile users polled, 27% spend their time on mobile, slightly higher than 26% on TV. For this market 57% say mobile devices are their primary means to access the net.

A similar trend is prevalent in India. 72% of internet users in the nation use their mobile as their primary means of accessing the web. India has outscored others in the Asia-Pacific region, such as South Korea, Singapore and Australia, in terms of mobile centricity, a measure of relative importance of the mobile phone compared to other media. Here, mobile internet users spend 33% of their media time on mobile devices — higher than any other media, including TV which received 27% of users’ attention. The survey was conducted in 18 markets across the country involving 2,200 respondents that spent an average of 94 minutes per day on their mobile phone for content consumption, excluding time spent for SMS, voice and video calls.

In A Global View of Mobile Advertising, an earlier report published by the world’s largest independent mobile advertising network partnered with ComScore, 69% of Asians were comfortable with receiving mobile ads while over 54% were ready for customized/personalized advertising. It highlighted changing consumer attitudes towards advertising and made some key revelations about the smartphone market in Asia. This certainly is good news for mobile app developers, who look to monetize their apps through ads. And it represents the changing notion among consumers — ads are no longer seen as intrusive and not helpful.

How does it look globally? InMobi unveiled its comprehensive global Mobile Media Consumption Q4 2011 Survey at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last week. Mobile devices have surpassed TV in terms of time spent with 27% compared to 22%. The other notable point is that social networking (they did it again!), entertainment, and search are the top three mobile media activities among mobile web users. 66% are comfortable with mobile ads.

On the findings, InMobi CEO and Founder Naveen Tewari highlighted how mobile devices are redefining how users consume media

[W]e will continue to see these trends rapidly accelerate as consumers rely ever more heavily on their mobile device. While the opportunities to exploit mobile media remain strong, the stakeholders across the industry will be confronted with ongoing questions and challenges which need to be addressed in order to meet the growing expectations of the customer.

Increased mobile usage and time spent on mobile devices is brought about by the need to stay online, connected and informed while on-the-go. It opens an opportunity for advertisers to significantly increase the impact of their existing advertising efforts and gain access to a bigger audience.