The Mobile Difference - a wake up call ?

A fascinating report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project on mobile internet usage. As an internet driven culture the US has a significant way to go to catch-up with the mobile cultures of developing countries - such as China, India and to some extent Europe. This report should be a wake up call. 

According to the analysis, 61% of the adult population do not feel the pull of mobility. That needs to change - mobile companies have to do a much better job selling the value proposition that mobile access brings. Mobile can deliver huge personal and business productivity benefits. It's the next mass media and publishers and other organizations need to be planning for the transition to mobile now. The transition from print to online is nothing compared to the disruption mobile will cause over the next few years.

Digital Collaborators: 8% of adults use information gadgets to collaborate with others and share their creativity with the world.


Ambivalent Networkers: 7% of adults heavily use mobile devices to connect with others and entertain themselves, but they don’t always like it when the cell phone rings.


Media Movers: 7% of adults use online access to seek out information nuggets, and these nuggets make their way through these users’ social networks via desktop and mobile access.


Roving Nodes: 9% of adults use their mobile devices to connect with others and share information with them.


Mobile Newbies: 8% of adults lack robust access to the internet, but they like their cell phones.


Desktop Veterans: 13% of adults are dedicated to wireline access to digital information, and like how it opens up the pipeline to information for them.


Drifting Surfers: 14% of adults are light users – despite having a lot of ICTs – and say they could do without modern gadgets and services.


Information Encumbered: 10% of adults feel overwhelmed by information and inadequate to troubleshoot modern ICTs.
The Tech Indifferent: 10% of adults are unenthusiastic about the internet and cell phone.


Off the Network: 14% of adults are neither cell phone users nor internet users.


Most “motivated by mobility” groups have positive and improving attitudes about cell phones, while remaining groups have tepid and deteriorating attitudes about them.
Deepening attachment to digital resources – wired and wireless – means connectivity is for many users now about continual information exchange.
The bar for what qualifies as high-tech among users has risen.
The “penalty” for having little or no access rises in a multi-platform world.

Comments

[Harmer]

I recall that in 2000 IDG Global Solutions in Europe did some worldwide research pertaining to people’s attitudes towards purchasing products and services on the web. The overwhelming conclusion of the research was that everyone was talking about internet commerce but very few were actually participating in the process. The main reason for this reluctance was perceived issues with security at that time, how far we have come in a relatively short time? It could well be that if the mobile user experience is rich and useful mobile users in the future will demand timely content delivered on a mobile web platform as a preference to traditional web based content, they just have not yet been convinced that the positives of the experience will out way any currently perceived issues and irritations.

[johntremblay]

Colin - any idea why the underlying research from PEW is so stale (2007). Though this report seems new, all the data is dated given mobile has matured quite a bit since then. Did they just do some new segmentation?

Bests
John

[ccoc]

With the pace of mobile growth and the impact of smartphones over the last year - it would have been good to see data from 2008. It's highly that the %'s have changed dramatically.