A new study of mobile Internet usage habits reveals odd usage facts

A recent study from Nielsen and Yahoo have been released, the study aimed to chart the various aspects of usage of mobile Internet enabled devices. The study group consisted of over 8000 people in the age 13-64 and about 63% of the subjects had access to mobile devices.

The study’s main focus was of course how to make mobile advertising more profitable, but it also reveals quite a lot about the usage patterns of those using mobile Internet enabled devices.

Internet usage while watching TV

For example, while watching TV 1 in 5 claim they look up more information regarding a commercial they just saw. Compared to the PC user group(those that didn’t own a mobile Internet enabled device) that figure is lower surprisingly, as 32% of the PC users claim they find more info about a product they just saw a commercial for.

Personally I’m a bit surprised by these figures, I suspected them to be much lower. The question that was asked was “What are you typically doing while you are on your mobile device while watching TV?” – so the answer does imply that it isn’t 20-30% that has ever sought out more info about a commercial, but that they do it regularly. This surprises me as a very high number.

When I watch TV I have a tendency to just zone out completely when the commercials appear, and most people I know seems to do the same, unless they are channel surfers and start zapping during the commercial break. But both behaviours still indicate the same, total lack of interest in commercials.

Research habits

Another quite amusing fact also seems evident from this survey, and it’s the fact that sales personnel aren’t generally trusted. The survey claims only 14% turned to sales personnel when researching for information, products or services.

Now this is something the Internet has changed radically, as in the old days there were little else to do but trust the sales personnel and professionals when doing research for something consumer related. But since the Internets appearance that has all changed of course, everyone is empowered in the way that they can do research themselves (this pertains those that got access to a free and uncensored Internet, which still isn’t that many looking at it from a global perspective).

I expected the use of sales personnel to be low, but I never thought it’d be as low as 14%. I have to question this result as I suspect the demographics of this group is making this result fairly skewed. As it was an online based survey, the people answering surely can be considered to be Internet user of a fairly high degree.

All in all the document is a good read if you are interested in the statistics regarding Internet enabled mobile devices, which these days translate to pads and smartphones. But if you do think a few steps further and try to realize what the study’s base aim is, it paints a picture of a future where you will be provided with a lot more ads in your mobile devices.

The PDF document with the results can be found here: Nielsen / Yahoo