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Top 10 Mobile Industry Facts and Figures

As the mobile industry continues to grow – and mobile phones become an ever more essential tool within today’s personal and business environments – a recent report published in MobiThinking has outlined specific facts and figures to demonstrate exactly how much this is the case.

We’ve picked our top ten!

1. 87% of the global population are mobile subscribers (5.9 billion people).

2. Mobile phone sales increased in 2011, with the sales smartphones highly significant in this regard. Nokia remains the number one handset manufacturer. Android is the most popular smartphone operating system and Samsung is the leading smartphone hardware producer.

3. Up to 1.2 billion of the world’s total mobile users access the internet through their phones (mobile broadband). Asia is the clear leader in this regard, with South Korea and Japan accounting for the highest mobile broadband penetration, with 91% and 88% respectively.

4. 8.49% of global website hits are made through mobile devices.

5. Up to 480.6 million users sent emails through their mobile phones in 2010. That figure is expected to quadruple by 2015.

6. In 2010, up to 6.9 trillion SMS messages were sent, as MMS accounted for 249 billion that year. Despite rumours of a crisis, SMS traffic was expected to reach 8 trillion in 2011.

7. The worldwide mobile messaging market was predicted to be worth over US$200 billion (£125,40bn) in 2011 – with SMS representing $127 billion (£79,63bn) of this. Reports forecast that the mobile messaging industry will grow to $334.7 billion (£209,88bn) by 2015.

8. It is expected that in 2015 there will be 1.6 trillion users of mobile instant messaging (IM).

9. 45% of mobile users in UK, France and Germany noticed mobile adverts in 2010, while 29% responded to them. Out of this group, 47% of Brits made a purchase.

10. 40% of people in the UK admitted to being more likely to respond to opt-in SMS, which is the most effective form of mobile ads in Britain. 21% said the same in France and 27% of Germans confessed to preferring mobile Web ads instead.

Price of stamps rocket! Have you thought about sending a text message instead?

With the Royal Mail recently announcing a price increase in the cost of stamps, will you be looking for a cheaper and quicker way to communicate?

From 30 April, the cost that Brits will pay for stamps will increase by 39%. The cost of an individual stamp will rise from 46p to 60p for first-class stamps and from 36p to 50 for second-class stamps.

This announcement has been made public by the state-owned postal service just after the communications watchdog Ofcom allowed it to establish its own prices.

“This is not great news for consumers. I doubt anyone is going to think about the challenges facing Royal Mail when they are paying 60p for a first-class stamp. Unfortunately, the economics of Royal Mail meant that something had to give to maintain the Universal Service Obligation,” stated Robert Hammond from Consumer Focus.

Since the arrival of new technologies such as the internet and text messages, traditional mail has lost many users. This new increase is predicted to do nothing but convince many of those who send letters in the post that there are quicker and cheaper ways of communication available.

This is one of the reasons why a number of businesses are choosing to send sms messages, to reach their customers and staff quickly, efficiently and at low cost.

U-Clock’s innovative use of our SMS API

Over the years we’ve seen some really interesting uses of our SMS API,  we’ve recently found out what U-Clock are up to…

U-Clock is a innovative North-West start-up company. They’ve created a unique clocking on system, designed to effectively manage employees.

The problem? For many employers managing remote employees can prove stressful, time consuming and costly. The U-Clock solution helps to remove these issues and allows busineses to monitor their workforce from remote locations.

The device has a unique site code and an 8 digit LCD display that changes every 30 seconds. When an employee arrives at or leaves a site, they send a text message to U-Clock containing the device’s site code and 8 digit number on display at that time. U-Clock identifies the user and clocks them in or out accordingly.

Take a look at our U-Clock case study to find out more…

We’re always really intrigued about the creative ways SMS is deployed to improve business communication.  If you’ve got a story to tell then we’d love to hear from you, please email hannah.giles@esendex.com