iPhone Changes Mobile Landscape

Six months after the iPhone’s U.S. launch, has the device changed the mobile landscape? According to M:Metrics, the mobile media authority, the answer is yes. Today, the measurement firm reports that the iPhone is already the most popular device for accessing news and information on the mobile Web, with 85 percent of iPhone users accessing news and information in the month of January.

That's important because the iPhone probably has created a whole new segment within the wireless user and wireless device universe: that of the mobile Web device.

Until recently, surveys by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, for example, have shown relatively low usage of the mobile Web. The iPhone user pattern suggests latent demand exists and will surface if only user interface and charging expectations are addressed.

“Beyond a doubt, this device is compelling consumers to interact with the mobile Web, delivering off-the-charts usage from everything to text messaging to mobile video,” says Mark Donovan, M:Metrics senior analyst.

iPhone might also be showing there are new niches for mobile video as well.

M:Metrics found that a staggering 31 percent of iPhone owners watched mobile TV or video, versus a 4.6 market average, and more than double the rate for all smartphone users.

The iPhone arguably also has emerged as the most-successful mobile music platform. About 74.1 percent of iPhone owners listened to mobile music in January, compared to 6.7 percent of the total mobile audience. In part, that may be because iPhone users also are heavy iPod users. About 84 percent of iPhone owners who use an MP3 player use an iPod.

Demographically, iPhone users are similar to the demographics of other smart phone owners. They are more likely to be: male, aged 25-34, earn more that $100,000 and have a college degree, than the average mobile subscriber, M:Metrics reports.

Though it might be tough to quantify the precise impact of each contributing element, it seems clear enough that when users don't have to worry about the charges and have an easy way to navigate, they quickly will adopt new behaviors related to mobile Web usage.