Nokia Number One Spot Under Threat

Nielsen’s latest information on the state of play with internet capable smartphones is not good news for Nokia.

Australians’ ownership of Internet capable mobile devices now sits at close to half of mobile users (43 percent) and engagement of those accessing the Internet via their mobiles has seen strong growth in the past year, according to recent research conducted by Nielsen.

However, of more interest will be Nielsen figures on the types of internet-capable handsets people will be purchasing. Currently 35% of respondents have a Nokia, 28 percent the iPhone and 7 percent a Blackberry. When asked what they intend to purchase in the next year (respondents were allowed multiple answers), 39 percent are looking at a Nokia, 61 percent the iPhone and 39 percent a Blackberry. This does not bode well for the world’s most popular phone manufacturer. Unfortunately for Nokia the survey doesn’t why people are considering other options, however with a tonne of apps at both the iPhone and Blackberry application stores, this could be one reason.

Just under one third of Australian mobile phone users (29 percent) access the Internet via a mobile phone, and amongst mobile Internet users, mobile Internet services have seen large increases in the past year. Internet searches are the most popular online activity undertaken via a mobile phone and saw the strongest growth in the past year, with close to three quarters of mobile Internet users (73 percent) having conducted an Internet search on their mobile, up from just 30 percent a year ago. Other common online activities included checking news/weather (59 percent, up 18 points), checking email (58 percent, up 20 points), maps/directions (56 percent, up 24 points) and social networking (39 percent, up 25 points).

Telstra reports mobile data traffic on the Telstra Next G network has been doubling every eight months for the past two years and 70 percent of its customers’ mobile handsets are now 3G enabled.

With an overwhelming majority of the share of mobile social networking, Facebook is by far the most common social networking site accessed via mobile (98 percent), followed by Twitter (20 percent) and MySpace (17 percent). Social networking intention is also high, with 90 percent of those who have Internet browsing on their mobile phone intending to visit Facebook, 18 percent planning to visit Twitter and 11 percent planning to visit MySpace.