Survey: iPhone 'Addicting' for Some Students

A Stanford University anthropology professor conducted a survey of student iPhone owners (n=200), most of whom (70%) had owned the device for less than a year. Many of these student-repondents expressed the idea that the device had become indispensable to the point of "addiction" for some.

Here are the top-level findings: 

• Nearly 85 percent of the iPhone owners used the phone as their watch
• 89 percent used it as their alarm clock
• 75 percent admitted to falling asleep with the iPhone in bed with them
• 69 percent said they were more likely to forget their wallet than their iPhone when leaving in the morning
• 74 percent said the iPhone also made them feel cool

Ranking the addition on a five point scale, "with five being addicted and one being not at all addicted":

• 10 percent of the students acknowledged full addiction to the device
• 34 percent ranked themselves as a four on the scale
• 6 percent said they weren't addicted at all

And among those who didn't consider themselves completely addicted:

• 32 percent expressed worry that they would become addicted someday.
• 15 percent of those surveyed said the iPhone was turning them into a media addict
• 30 percent called it a "doorway into the world"
• 25 percent found the phone "dangerously alluring"
• 41 percent said losing their iPhone would be "a tragedy"

Next up: iPhone Anonymous

4G Will Really Be 3.5G

Next generation broadband -- commonly referred to as "4G" -- is technically supposed to deliver download speeds of 100Mbps. Current 3G speeds are about 2-3 Mbps. The first 4G mobile network is being deployed in in Sweden and Norway by TeliaSonera. Users in those markets will experience download speeds of 20 to 80 Mbps.

In the US all the hype surrounding mobile 4G is mostly just that -- hype. Speeds that mobile users in the US will experience will be a fraction of those now being offered in Scandanivia. Verizon's LTE deployments, rolling out later this year and next will offer actual speeds of 5Mbps to 12Mbps. Sprint WiMax promises "average download speeds of 3 to 6 mbps." Still that will be a meaningful improvement over what exists today.

Meanwhile US cable ISP providers are seeking to upgrade their networks to offer true 100 Mbps speed. According to an article in CNET, 100Mbps exists today.

From a technical standpoint, 100Mbps is achievable today. In fact, Cablevision is already offering a 100Mbps service, and Comcast, which has been offering 100Mbps to business customers since September in one test market, is about to launch 100Mbps service to consumers in several markets in the first half of this year.

Verizon Communications, which has deployed fiber directly to people's homes, doesn't offer 100Mbps service right now, but a company spokesman said such a service will be available soon. And Cox Communications, which is also upgrading its cable network, said it will have 100 Mbps service this year as well in some markets.

The article goes on to discuss the key issue: consumer pricing, which will make 100Mbps too costly (at least in the near term) for most US households. Prices will come down over time as competition heats up and consumer expectations evolve.

As speeds improve consumer behavior will continue to change, especially among mobile users. The faster that mobile (and WiFi) networks become the more people will turn to their handsets and other mobile devices (think iPad) before they go to the PC. 

AT&T Renews Big Mobile Campus Challenge

This is the second year that AT&T has run what it calls Big Mobile on Campus Challenge. Essentially students develop mobile apps and AT&T owns them.

The winner or winning team gets $10K. Runners up get $5K and devices of their choice. This is very smart because AT&T gets lots of free/cheap development for mobile apps by a very mobile-savvy population. The company gets good PR and the winning app(s) may actually be useful and capable of implementation.

 Here's video of last year's "Rover" local-mobile app winner:

Google Should Integrate Latitude and Buzz

There's an article in eWeek that discusses the potential integration of Google's somewhat controversial Buzz service with the pre-existing Latitude friend finder:

[Google PM Steve] Lee said that while these features showed how Google is "pushing boundaries in terms of sharing location," they are hardly the last stop for innovation with Latitude. "We're still investing in Latitude and we think it's extremely important. You'll see more and more great stuff around Latitude."

"Down the road, there might be points of integration between Buzz and Latitude, but they are separate products and have different use cases." Lee declined to provide specifics, but noted, "we're thinking of what apps we can build that have certain compelling use cases and how can location enhance those apps."

Google now has many location-oriented "point solutions" (Buzz for mobile, Local for mobile Web, Maps & Street View, Navigation, Latitude, etc.). As Lee says Buzz and Latitude are different offerings with different use cases; however the company should find a way to combine them into one or at least cross-pollinate them.

I imagine that Google's view is that these are effectively all "layers" within Google Maps and so they are integrated in a sense. I would also imagine -- though Google won't share specific numbers -- that Latitude has lost some momentum to newer rivals in the market: Foursquare, et al. Indeed, Yelp, Foursquare and the other location-aware mobile offerings have both a way to notify friends of your location and also see what others have said about the particular location or business. 

Google also now owns Aardvark, which offers a real-time advice or recommendations channel and has a very heavy local or real-world dimension. How the company will integrate that (or not) into these other layers remains to be seen.

Google has a kind of embarrassment of local riches but it needs to bring more of these capabilities together in an elegant and useful way. 

Movie Promo Uses Outdoor + Barcodes

One of the things that we've pointed out many times here is that traditional media gain "new life" with the incorporation of mobile (SMS, barcodes). A great case-in-point comes in the form of a promotion for the new horror/sci-fi movie Repo Men (not a remake of the 80s cult classic). The movie poster contains a traditional barcode that users scan for additional content and promotional information:

The barcode campaign, now taking place in 15 U.S. cities, involves outdoor creative for the movie that includes a small barcode in the corner of the posters. Users can scan these codes with an iPhone equipped with reader software from Red Laser, decode them and link to pages of apparent sales brochures for artificial hearts, kidneys, livers, eyes, and so on.

Other codes link to video clips showing a cable shopping network show touting the latest and most expensive artificial organs—"artiforgs," in the world of the movie—or to a guerilla Web site supposedly representing a movement to resist The Union, the finance arm that underwrites these costly organs and then repossesses them when the owners default.

In the absence of this the movie poster might be provocative and build awareness for the film's release. But this approach will create much more "buzz" and will likely boost sales at the box office. The only question is whether the specific mobile approach (smartphone barcode scanning) is aligned with the target audience, which might be younger and more inclined toward SMS. However, you can't do the rich media/content stuff with feature phones. 

Forget about this particular promotion, SMS and/or barcodes should be thoughtfully incorporated into more traditional media campaigns increasingly as a matter almost of routine. Not only does it make these ads dynamic and interactive, but it offers metrics on response rates as well.

Smaato: iPhone CTRs on Ads Decline

When it comes to mobile search and paid-search clicks the iPhone still drives most of the volume. However, ad aggregator and optimizer Smaato says that iPhone and iPod Touch display click-through rates (CTRs) have declined and that Windows Mobile has now pulled ahead. Symbian is the king. 

The data in the chart below represent concentrations in the US and Asian markets. Smaato is looking at "performance" in 35 mobile ad networks covering "more than 3000 registered mobile publishers in February 2010."

An index score of 100 is the average CTR. So in the chart above, Symbian, Android, "featured phones" over-index -- meaning their users click more -- and those below 100 are under-indexing; their users click less. 

Smaato comments on the decline in the iPhone/iPod Touch CTRs:

One of the big surprises is the continuing decline of CTR Index from iPhone and iPodTouch with a rate of 89; it’s the first time Apple devices have dipped below the average Index of 100. In December 2009 the iPhone posted a CTR Index of 119, sliding to 104 in January 2010.

There will be a good deal of unreflective discussion of these findings. It's important to point out as a fundamental matter that clicks as a display metric are inadequate and fail to capture the real influence of dispaly advertising online. There is now a substantial body of evidence that display ads influence purchase behavior despite a lack of clicks. 

So while these data are interesting, they don't necessarily correlate with actual purchase outcomes or brand influence on consumers from mobile display ads. 

Taptu: Roughly 1/3 of Sites 'Touch-Friendly'

Building and optimizing a site for the "mobile Web" is a lot more difficult than doing so for the PC. You've got a conventional HTML site, which may not work if it's flash-heavy. Then you've got apps, which publishers and brands may or may not need, and then you should have a "touch-friendly" iPhone-optimized mobile site. 

Most sites are not well designed for the mobile Web and many marketers are simply unaware of how critical this is becoming. Gomez, in a self-serving way, has documented that poor mobile performance can affect sales and have a negative impact on brand impression. 

Mobile browser Taptu now has released a report that analyzes the degree to which sites are set up and optimized for what it calls the "touch Web" -- basically for smartphones with touchscreens. The company examined 113 million sites and found that roughly a third were "touch-friendly." 

By category, here's Taptu's breakdown of the percentages of sites that are touch-friendly:

Taptu defines "higher quality sites" as those "which as used as the basis of our category-level analysis are defined as those with above average quality score for either visual quality or information quality."

The shopping sites are best positioned, with social networks not far behind. Mostly that means Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. Facebook is very well set up for mobile of course, across devices and platforms. What's a bit surprising is how poorly configured the "places, travel & local" category is. Only 9% of "higher quality" sites in the category are optimized for touchscreen smartphones. Yet this is content heavily used by mobile subscribers with data plans. 

Over the next 12 months every major brand and publisher will need to upgrade for smartphone owners. 

iPad Coming to Stores on April 3

Yesterday I said the good folks at Gartner were effectively clueless about whether or not the iPad would sell in quantity this year. But soon we'll find out what the preliminary (early adopters, fanboy) demand will be.

Apple announced this morning that pre-orders will happen on March 12 and the "magical and revolutionary" device will become available on April 3:

Apple® today announced that its magical and revolutionary iPad will be available in the US on Saturday, April 3, for Wi-Fi models and in late April for Wi-Fi + 3G models. In addition, all models of iPad will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK in late April.

Beginning a week from today, on March 12, US customers can pre-order both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G models from Apple’s online store (www.apple.com) or reserve a Wi-Fi model to pick up on Saturday, April 3, at an Apple retail store.

There's lots of conflicting speculation and survey data on demand. Pre-orders and early sales will give the market a pretty good sense of whether this is going to be another hit or not. Price, which could be reduced, will also play a role. The "low-end" iPad, which will be the most successful of the many options, comes in at $499. This price was the big surprise at the launch event and much cheaper than the speculated $800-$1,000. 

If you recall once the iPhone gained its subsidy sales took off. I think there's no question that at the right price, which for the iPhone was sub-$200, this device will sell well. 

___

As this device moves into the wild, it will be interesting to see how people use it. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson doesn't believe he'll get a lot of 3G subscriptions off the device. And I would agree; the "use case" is going to be at home, in hotels and other places that have WiFi (maybe in the car for kids and movies/games). In addition the people that buy this will have smartphones already for access to the mobile Internet "on the go." 

Vlingo Adds Speech-enabled E-Mail and SMS to the iPhone: More Speechable Moments

Today Vlingo introduced an upgrade of its speech-enabling software for the iPhone that has a totally new look, but more importantly adds the ability for owners to dictate and send email and content that can be pasted into SMS messages. I said "owners" as opposed to users because the new capabilities are being introduced as features that can be purchased "inside" the application. Individually, each feature carries a $6.99 price, but can be purchased as a bundle for $9.99.

Once purchased, the new features are nestled seamlessly within the Vlingo application, which means that Vlingo has largely cracked the code in terms of user convenience and reduction of application latencies. Its nearest competitors, on the iPhone at least, are Dragon Dictation (from Nuance) and ShoutOut (from Promptu).

All three applications are comparable in terms ability to accurately render utterances. The big difference is Vlingo's ability to differentiate between commands and content. Where others require users to choose their delivery mechanism either before or after dictating content, Vlingo is designed to "understand" that when I say "Text Dari Barzel I'm going to be late coming home", I mean: Send a text to the wireless phone of Dari Barzel saying "I'm going to be late coming home."

After rendering the dictation, it takes me to the messaging app in the iPhone where I double tap in order to paste the message in an SMS. It is a tiny bit clunky, but is still a time saver. Promptu, by contrast enables its users to choose the recipient from the phone's contact list and then sends the SMS through an email gateway. It is fairly convenient for the message originator, but comes through with some strange heading information for the recipient to interpret (including some "smiley faces" in the place of punctuation in some instances).

Like Vlingo, Nuance's Dragon employs the native texting capabilities of the iPhone, meaning that the user exits the application and double taps the text entry bar to "paste" the rendered text before sending. Unlike Vlingo, Dragon starts with a screen designed for the input of dictated text. It then prompts users to designate whether the message is to be sent via email, SMS or simply stored to the iPhone's clipboard. After selecting the designated option, it exits Dragon and goes to the native messaging app, where, unlike Vlingo, users must choose the recipient manually from the phone's contact list. Thus Vlingo, in this case is a time saver.

By adding SMS and email, Vlingo is adding to the "speechable moments" on the iPhone. Google had done much the same by speech-enabling the search box in the Google application, as did Microsoft with Bing Mobile. Collectively, they are making voice input to a phone "cool" again, and the result is more frequent use. In the aggregate, Vlingo's Hadley Harris told us, the average rate of usage is "five times per day". It varies by region and "platform" but it spans Search, Messaging, Voice Dial and Social applications (like updating Twitter or Facebook). On platforms that offer it, "text messaging" is the most common. On the iPhone, the most common use has been generic search.

As Harris explained "We we differentiate around our vision of being anything to the phone and Vlingo recognizing it and taking action." That means that the application recognizes the users intent in real time and takes action on it. Accuracy is getting better, but more importantly "task completion" has been steadily improving as well. Completion of tasks, which ultimately culminate in a trasaction, broadens the spectrum of prospective revenue models in the speech-enabled mobile world.

Gartner Has No Idea How Many iPads Will Sell

IT consulting firm Gartner said today that global PC shipments will increase by 20% this year:

Worldwide PC shipments are projected to total 366.1 million units in 2010, a 19.7 percent increase from 305.8 million units shipped in 2009, according to the latest preliminary forecast by Gartner, Inc. Worldwide PC spendingis forecast to reach $245 billion in 2010, up 12.2 percent from 2009.

That kind of projection is relatively safe given that the economy is improving and there's pent up demand among consumers and enterprises (especially) for new machines. But Gartner goes on to say:

Apple's announcement of its upcoming iPad has created much discussion in the marketplace regarding market opportunities for traditional tablet PCs and next-generation tablet devices, such as the iPad. Gartner's initial thinking is that vendors could ship up to 10.5 million traditional tablets and next-generation tablet devices worldwide in 2010.

Here's where it all breaks down and falls apart.

Tablet computers have historically failed. The Kindle is a hit but it's not a PC. The many competitive eReaders (also not PCs) have yet to enter the market (except Nook and Sony effectively). The iPad (also not a PC) will be successful in my view but its success is highly speculative at best right now. 

There will be a range of Android tablets (Nook is one such device) that may succeed (depending on price). These are also not PCs.

True tablet PCs -- flat panels or slates running Windows 7 -- are again destined to fail. That's because people will opt for Windows 7 netbooks or laptops instead, which are more functional. Tablet computers such as the HP Windows 7 device unveiled at CES are not going to sell (unless they're dirt cheap).

As for the non-PC iPad and its non-PC slate competitors (other than Kindle and Nook), any projected sales figures are completely speculative and pulled from the ether or someone's posterior. 

Quantcast: Android Growing, iPhone Not

If these Quantcast numbers are correct they provide some additional insight into why Apple may have sued HTC (and Android/Google by proxy): its growth has stalled and Android is accelerating. Partly this is about AT&T exclusivity in the US. It's also about Android flooding the marketing.

Android is growing from a smaller base so its percentage growth is going to be much higher. The decline in iPhone growth reflects that everyone who is likely to move to AT&T to get the iPhone has already moved and people are now opting for "good enough" Android devices that are becoming available from their existing carriers. 

Here are the Quantcast charts:

The figures above actually show a higher iPhone mobile Internet share than other data vendors.

Google Offers 'Gestures' As Search Input

Google is experimenting with various ways to get queries and content into the phone that take advantage of native features of the mobile handset (voice, camera). Now comes touch-screen gestures as a way to call up contacts or content on the device:

Today we're pleased to announce Gesture Search, a new Google Labs application for Android-powered devices running Android 2.0 or above in the US. Gesture Search lets you quickly find a contact, an installed application, a bookmark or a music track from hundreds or thousands of items, by simply drawing alphabet gestures on the touch screen.

This is another innovation that recognizes the limitations and challenges of keying in queries on the keyboard. It also shows how the PC and mobile experiences are diverging, although gestures will be a part of tablet computers as they penetrate the market to varying degrees. 

Currently this only works for contacts, apps and other content resident on the device (as opposed to the Internet). 

Google: PC 'Irrelevant' in Three Years

So here's a bit of an aggressive statement from Google's European Chief John Herlihy: "In three years time, desktops will be irrelevant." Herlihy was speaking at a technology conference in Ireland.

The expanded notion behind the provocative quote is that Google is now doing everything for the cloud with mobile devices in mind. Herlihy cited Japan as a leading indicator of where the market is going. The Japanese example cannot be generalized to all cultures and countries however. 

Herlihy's remark is too strong but it is correct that mobile devices will become "primary" for many people in the next three to five years. The usage patterns of PCs and mobile devices right now are highly complementary. However many people will begin to turn to mobile devices first in a number of use cases. There will be some "cannibalization" of PC usage by mobile devices, especially if tablets take off. PCs and mobile devices will increasingly be connected -- or more precisely as Herlihy suggests more content will be in the cloud and "platform agnostic." 

Desktops will not be irrelevant in three years but considerable search volume and other types of content access will be taking place on mobile handsets. Most marketers and publishers, despite their rhetoric to the contrary, are generally unprepared for this seismic shift. Indeed, marketing on mobile devices is evoling to become quite different than on the PC. In many cases its more effective but can be considerably more challenging. 

While the Herlihy comment is extreme it reflects the new era of computing that we're rapidly moving into. 

Apple vs. HTC (Android): It's Not about Money

In the labyrinth of patent language and law it's almost impossible to predict the outcome of a dispute such as Apple vs. HTC, which is really Apple vs. Android (Google). There's a ton of discussion and analysis on Techmeme this morning about the case.

Google is not a defendant but you can be sure that Google will be involved behind the scenes and at the PR level. To that end, the company sent TechCrunch -- the ultimate tech PR outlet -- a statement that it "stands behind" its Android partners:

“We are not a party to this lawsuit. However, we stand behind our Android operating system and the partners who have helped us to develop it"

Google basically dictated the user experience on the Nexus One and HTC built it. The Nexus One comes closest to the iPhone of any of the Android devices to date. So for Apple to sue HTC and not Google is like blaming the car for the accident and not the driver. But Apple is being very purposeful. 

Google probably should be a party to the litigation. However, as a piece in the NY Times points out, the decision not to name Google is part of a legal strategy:

Apple is simply going after a less powerful company first, one with much smaller pockets than Google.

“It clearly involves some form of litigation strategy of picking off the weaker members of the herd first,” Mr Zittrain said. “They can always add Google to the suit later on.”

There are 20 patent claims that Apple asserts against HTC in the case. It's almost certain that at least some of those claims are valid. It's possible that the case could settle but the case really isn't about money; it's about functionality. 

Apple is suing because it has seen with Droid and the Nexus One that Google and its partners can build devices that come close enough to Apple's iPhone to take the wind out of its sales. Furthermore, Apple's decision to stick with AT&T as the exclusive carrier in the US for the time being means millions of potential lost sales at Verizon. Meanwhile Verizon will continue to pound away at AT&T's network and build the Android brand.

What Apple likely wants is to make Android and all the phones that use it less capable of delivering iPhone-like experiences. If we step back, Apple did in fact reinvent mobile phones, although HTC has had touch screen devices for years. The rest of the industry then came in and basically copied what Apple was doing: touch-screen handsets (no stylus) and app stores. 

My guess is that Apple wants certain types of features or functionality eliminated in future Android phones. It wants the iPhone to remain a relatively unique device in the market so that consumers cannot satisfy their appetite for it through an alternative such as the Nexus One. 

Any judge/jury is going to be unlikely to give Apple everything it seeks because of the fact that there will be a bias toward preserving "open competition" -- Google will now likely take it's Android "open" rhetoric to the next level -- and because there are a lot of people who already have these devices. What we're likely to see then is one of the following scenarios:

• HTC wins completely (unlikely)
• The case settles (maybe, depends on concessions HTC would be willing to make; Google is likely to try and prevent settlement [even behind the scenes] where Android is potentially compromised)
• Apple wins competely (unlikely)
• Apple wins a partial victory on some but not all claims (the most likely outcome)

As a practical matter the case would take at least a year to get to trial and then, if Apple wins, there would be an appeal. That might mean nothing would change in the near term. There's also the issue about how the potential for an Apple victory might affect other OEMs. That's not yet clear.

Apple Sues HTC (Android by Proxy?)

Apple announced that it has filed suit against HTC for violating up to 20 patents. The notion of 20 patent violations/infringements suggests that the company has been thinking about this for some time. The recent inclusion of multi-touch on the Nexus One may have been the final straw. Apple owns the multi-touch patent.

The press release doesn't explain the precise nature of the claims:

Apple® today filed a lawsuit against HTC for infringing on 20 Apple patents related to the iPhone's user interface, underlying architecture and hardware. The lawsuit was filed concurrently with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and in U.S. District Court in Delaware.

The interesting question is whether Apple is really going after Google/Android here indirectly. The answer: probably yes. Google is not named as a defendant but at least in the case of the Nexus One, HTC merely carried out Google's design specifications. The Nexus One is the most iPhone-like of the Android handsets and the most competitive with the iPhone (many people think it's superior). 

Nokia and Apple have sued each other after the failure to negotiate a licensing agreement. And there are several other lawsuits among handset OEMs going on as well now.

It's unclear what relief or remedy Apple is seeking in this context (e.g., licensing fees, blocking certain features). However it would appear that Apple is trying to hold on to and potentially "own" a certain kind of user experience here.

An early, unsuccessful suit by Apple against Microsoft after the original Windows came out enabled the PC OS to go on to dominate the market. In this scenario and context, Android plays potential Microsoft to Apple's Apple. 

Rivals Argue They Perform Better than AdMob

Two recent studies by Mobclix and SmartReply contend that each network performs better than AdMob. Because the data are self-serving one must receive them with some caution. However here are the results . . . 

Mobclix ran "The Mobclix Challenge" in December to directly compare itself to AdMob, claiming that its platform/network would provide app developers with greater revenue. Mobclix said it "outperformed AdMob by 83%. Overall, Mobclix was able to ensure higher eCPM, significantly more revenue and 100% fill rates for all participating apps."

The company highlighted two case studies that cast Mobclix in an especially favorable light vs. AdMob: 

• Jokes Free earned 135% more ad revenue and received 2.27x higher eCPM via Mobclix in comparison to AdMob. If they had integrated Mobclix exclusively in December, their app could have earned $5K more in revenue.
• Spazzle Free earned 25% more ad revenue and received as much as 175% higher eCPMs using Mobclix. If they had integrated Mobclix exclusively in December, they could have earned $6K more in revenue.

Independently SmartReply, which works with retailers, conducted a study comparing its own SMS network to AdMob's. The company said that in "multiple comparative tests run between in Q4 2009 and January 2010 across the AdMob and SmartReply networks," the results were as follows:

• For every $100 spent in mobile advertising, the SmartReply network delivered 7.7 new customers while AdMob delivered only 4 new customers.
• SmartReply’s ad network delivered a 2.17% click-through rate while AdMob’s delivered only a 0.13% click-through rate.
• To receive 100 responses, SmartReply circulated 65,000 impressions whereas AdMob needed to circulate 5 Million impressions.
• For every 12 Million impressions served by SmartReply, AdMob needed to serve 1 Billion to achieve the same results.

This is a little bit "apples to oranges" because one would expect an opt-in SMS platform to have better success than a pure display network such as AdMob's. However SmartReply contends that it is both more efficient and offers broader potential reach than AdMob (SMS vs. apps/mobile Web). 

Separately Mobclix just acquired analytics provider Hearbeat to broaden what it can offer developers in terms of tracking app performance. This is similar to the recent acquistion of TapMetrics by Millennial Media, to broaden its analytics capabilities. 

Pew: 88% of Mobile Internet Users Get News

The Pew Internet project has come out with a report, which I've written about at Search Engine Land and Screenwerk, on digital news consumption. It's based on US consumer survey data. Below I summarize the mobile news portion of the report.

Overall, 26% of American adults say they get some form of news via cell phone – that amounts to 33% of adult cell phone owners and 88% of adults who have mobile internet.

The typical on-the-go news consumer is a white male, age 34, who has graduated from college and is employed full-time. 

Among this subgroup of internet-using mobile phone users, we found that the vast majority get some kind of news online:

• 72% check weather reports on their cell
• 68% get news and current events information on their cell
• 49% have downloaded an application that allows them to access news, weather, sports, or other information on their cell
• 44% check sports scores and related information on their cell
• 35% check traffic information on their cell
• 32% get financial information or updates
• 31% get news alerts sent by text or email to their phones
• 88% say yes to at least one of the above

Source: Pew Internet Project 1/10 (n=2,259 adults)

No surprises here, news is one of the top mobile content categories. The report overall shows a multi-platform news enviornment where people are looking at news in traditional media, online and in mobile.

The "Internet" is now the third most common news source, outstripping traditional newpapers and radio (following local and national TV). Online, portals and aggregators are the dominant sources of news for consumers. 

Sorry Matt, Nexus One Isn't Better

Tomorrow I have to give back my loaner Nexus One so I decided to reflect again on my experience with it over the past 30 days. Google's Matt Cutts wrote a much cited post, Leaving the iPhone. He's adjusted to the Nexus One and doesn't intend to go back to the iPhone:

It took a little while to adapt to Android, but I’m very happy with my Nexus One and I don’t plan to go back to the iPhone. Both the iPhone and Android are great operating systems, but it’s important to me that I can write or run the applications I choose on my phone.

Consider this my "leaving Nexus One" (involuntarily).

If there were no iPhone then Nexus One (notwithstanding other Android devices coming) would be the best phone on the market. There's no question of that. There are many things to celebrate there; voice for (almost) every text field is great, voice search is great too. (The latter is also on the iPhone from Google, Nuance, Microsoft and others.)

Much of my email is now generated by voice on the Nexus One, which works well most of the time. That's a feature I really love. However Google Goggles, which I had great hopes for, basically doesn't work at this stage of the game. I assume it will continue to improve over time.

I love and genuinely use Google Navigation, and love its integration with Maps and search. I like multi-tasking as well. The T-Mobile network . . . not so great. I hate the HTC keyboard; it's weak.

The Nexus One is not an apps device. I know that AdMob and a few others offer data and commentary to the effect that Android and iPhone users display similar behavior. On the iPhone and iPod Touch apps are primary, mobile Web is secondary. It's the opposite for me on Android.

This is now my second Android device and for the most part I just don't use apps. My Android behavior is consistent with my behavior on the PC Internet. While I download and play with apps there's no sustained usage. Mail, Calendar, Navigation/Maps and Facebook are notable exceptions. My conclusion from observing my own behavior over time, with the MyTouch3G and now the Nexus One, is that Android is about the mobile Internet and to a much lesser degree about apps.

Google needed and still needs apps to compete with the overall proposition offered by the iPhone, but it's clearly ambivalent about apps. The Android Market is a necessary albeit "transitional" mechanism for consumers from the iPhone-centric apps experience to a rich Google-centric mobile Web experience. That's not my view of how the mobile Internet will evolve but it's essentially the vision Google has articulated. My view is that apps will continue to thrive in pockets as the mobile Web becomes richer and more functional. (And the "mobile Web" is distinct from the PC Internet as rendered on a mobile browser.)

Developers appreciate Android because they can constantly revise and "iterate" without the iPhone App Store approval hassle. I've been told this by several developers (a rationale for moving to HTML5 as well). In the end, however, Android apps just aren't as polished as the iPhone. They're not as "crisp."

The iPhone is overall a better device with its own limitations. The iPhone's limitations have been chronicled at length elsewhere so I won't go through them. But the chief limitation in my mind is AT&T exclusivity.

Make no mistake the Nexus One is a formidable device and it, as well as those about to roll out on its heels, put tremendous pressure on Apple to provide a new iPhone that offers multitasking, a better camera, faster processor speed, longer battery life and so on.

Here's hoping that Apple rises to the challenge.