Compare the US mobile web traffic figures with Australia and you’ll see a disconnect between what you’re hearing about on Australian Android growth and the actual figures.
Typical stories go like this “Australian page views on Android grow 672% in four months…” (Digitalmedia.net) The enormous percentage gives away the back story – it started with a base figure smaller than Steve Jobs tie collection. Looking at some raw data we can see that the growth of late is a rise from .71% to 8.5% market share. Impressive growth but not the epic game changer we’re lead to believe. So, what’s happening in the US?Nielson
AdMob
These figures show that in the US, Android web usage sits at around 25% vs Apple’s 36%. We can see that Android is taking a slice of Apple and Blackberry’s market share and we could assume that the trend will move closer to parity over the next year. As a new player, Android is taking market share from the rest. With only 8% of new Android owners converting from iPhone, it will be interesting to watch how the race evolves as conversion opportunities dry up.
Here we are in Australia – a very different story. First thing you’ll notice is that it’s Apple iOS FTW. We’re a very unique market in the world of mobile. Australia has one of the highest iPhone penetrations per capita in the world. By quantity we’re equal 5th with Japan and just behind 4th placed Canada. Unlike the US, the Android figures are remarkably lower and is taking most of its market share from Blackberry, not Apple. However, this is market share for page views and not a direct reflection of handset penetration. More on that later.
With the difference and intricacies in figures, it’s not surprising that over the last year we’ve developed a warped view of the mobile landscape in Australia. When local press discusses Android, they’re often referring to global or US figures.
We assume that Australia is behind the rest of the world and will inevitably follow US and UK trends. Just like our car preferences, this isn’t always the case, especially with mobile. The difference between the US and Australia and mobile figures goes back to the start. Before the iPhone, (BI) the US had a love affair with Motorola’s and Blackberry’s while we were cheek to cheek with Nokia’s, Samsung’s and Sony’s. Fast forward to the present, (3Ai) and the 2 mobile landscapes still look as though we’re in 2 different hemispheres.
The handset penetration figures only confuse things further. Android sales figures and penetration is growing but why is it not reflected in the page view figures? It’s likely we’re seeing the 2 year mobile handset lifecycle in action. If you were picking up a new handset 2 years ago you had a choice of the iPhone or something cheaper. People on smaller plans stuck with phones of a low feature set and these users haven’t really evolved their mobile usage beyond voice and text to smartphone features like web and social. This group is now hitting the 2 year lifecycle and the new phone options in store are very Android centric, usually 5 to choose from. These users may be picking up a smartphone for the first time without having the smartphone nouse or habits to use all of the features. This is likely skewing the mobile web traffic numbers in favour of iPhones while Android users are still working out how to get online. However, it’s not a stretch to predict that the Android users will evolve their mobile habits, driven by social influence and our increasing dependency on having access to our digital presence. Let’s talk again in a few months…
What does this mean for brands looking to provide their audience with access to their web presence beyond the PC? Firstly, consider that not all of your audience wants to interact with you via mobile. Just like the web, our mobile habits are always evolving. Some people are content with voice and text while others have evolved to use web and social services. For a mobile web presence, you should start your focus with the percentage of the audience that is already using the media channel. This means that handset browsing figures are much more important than handset ownership in your total audience.
If you want to know which handsets your audience use to interact with your brand, look at your Google Analytics or similar. Go to “visitors” and “mobile devices” to see what your audience is using. This will give you a split between iPhone, Symbian, Android, iPad etc. The first thing you’ll notice is that the iPhone, iPad and iPod dominate the pie chart. Android? It’s usually sitting towards the bottom of the list at around 2-4% of your mobile audience.
Total mobile browsers are usually around 3-7% of your total traffic. While they’re not huge figures, this is the segment of your audience that is inclined to interact with your brand via mobile – arguably a very motivated audience to go to the trouble of connecting with you beyond the PC. They’re genuinely interested in your brand, otherwise they’d be playing Angry Birds or “checking in” to their local. If you can answer the questions of “what motivated them to go there in the first place”, and “how can I make their journey and outcome easier”, then you’re tapping into a lucrative market.
Think of this as a motivated shopper entering your store with their heart set on buying something – what are they seeing when they get there? Is the shop assistant helpful? Can they navigate their way through the aisles quickly and easily? For many PC sites viewed on mobile, it’s a Vodafone experience – crap reception and poor service.
So, now that you know where your audience is, you can likely relax about developing something specifically for Android …for now. Once the Android owners get a taste of the interwebs goodness, they’ll be all over it like hipsters on a fixie.
* The iPad shouldn’t really feature here if we’re looking at mobile web browsing behavior vs PC. iPad users are browsing the web at home/office in the same way they use their laptop, just a little less clunky. Mobile users are completely different and feature unique browsing habits and motivations.
References:
AIMIA Digital Lifestyle Index
Sensis
