Dot Mobi Statistics

There are 800 million PCs in the world, about 1 in every 8 people.  1.1 billion people or 1 in every 6 people accessed the internet. The difference between PCs and internet users is due to people:

» sharing computers;

» using internet cafes;

» using the internet from work, and

» accessing the internet on mobile devices.

In 2005 there was 2.2 billion mobile phones users in the world, currently the estimate is 2.5 billion. At least every third person has a mobile phone and the number is steadily increasing.  Ten years ago 50 million used the internet now 1.1 billion people do.  Currently 50 million people browse from a mobile phone and all indications that it will take far less that ten years to get to a billion, it is predicted that by 2010 mobile internet users will exceed PC internet users.

Why build for mobile now?

» 16.5 million mobile phones in use in Australia;

» 28% of Australian mobile phone users access the internet from their phone;

» 12% of Australian mobile phone users browse the web from their phone;

» Web browsers becoming more common in mobile phones;

» Mobile service providers are encouraging mobile web use;

The future?

Japan, South Korea and even China are currently leading, with Australia not far behind.  Expect, Australia to have a big increase in mobile web browsing in the next two to three years, with 3’s X-series and Telstra’s hiptop2 starting the change.  US and Canada will arrive later, they are probably a year or more behind Australia.  Mobile web applications the next big thing?  Yes it is very likely, flickr has already started.  GPS in phones will allow websites to know where visitors are, good for commercial sites to direct customers to nearest location