Mobile subscriber data a ‘perfect storm’ for advertisers: comScore

New data on Canadian mobile use and subscriber numbers point to a “perfect storm” for the wireless advertising industry in the months ahead, comScore Inc. vice-president of sales Bryan Segal said at the Wireless Canada Technology Showcase in Ottawa Tuesday. A high number of Canadians about to retire their old and outdated cellphones and improving smartphone options as indications of a “smartphone revolution” coming to Canada, Segal said at a day-long conference organized by the Canadian Wireless and Telecommunications Association (CWTA). According to comScore data measuring mobile use by people over the age of 13, Canada now ranks fourth in the world in smartphone penetration. The company said 34 per cent of Canadians using at least one cellphone are connecting a smartphone as their primary device. Measured in June, those statistics represent a 10 per cent increase over previous Canadian statistics collected in March of this year, Segal said. The gains are outpacing nearly every other developed country in the world except Germany, which falls below Canada with 32 per cent total smartphone penetration, he said. Approximately 32 per cent of Canadians are using old or outdated devices, Segal said, and newer and cheaper smartphones penetrating the market mean that more Canadians will be turning them on in the months ahead. “As contracts start to run out now and as all these great phones are available and the prices are starting to get better on the data plans, what are they going to buy?” he said. “They’re going to buy smartphones.” A wave of new smartphone users will mean room for growth in the mobile advertising, handset manufacturing and app development fields, he said. To date, Segal said, Canadians have demonstrated loyalty to device manufacturers. More than half of those who had previously owned phones made by Apple Inc., Research in Motion Ltd. or Nokia Corp. purchased phones made by the same manufacturer a second time, comScore statistics said. The loyalty has helped Nokia’s Symbian and Apple’s iOS operating systems hold steady with 6 per cent and 31 per cent of the smartphone operating system market share, Segal said, at a time when Google Inc.’s Android platform is rushing into the Canadian market. Android’s share of the market climbed from 12 per cent in March to 19 per cent in June, Segal said. RIM’s Blackberry operating system led the Canadian market with 38 per cent penetration in June—a four point drop from the 42 per cent market share it held in March. “Canada is still a Blackberry nation,” Segal said. Also on the rise is Canadians’ use of mobile applications—which climbed from 35 per cent penetration in March to 39 per cent in June—and peoples' use of Internet browsers on their mobile devices. Mobile banking was also up in Canada during the period, climbing 21 per cent, Segal said. “And you know when the banking world gets it, it’s going to come to industries as well.” nkyonka@thewirereport.ca

Mobile subscriber data a ‘perfect storm’ for advertisers: comScore

News | 09/20/2011 10:12 pm EDT

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