The website of Alex Kinch, live from London
Posts tagged Research
SMS reminders can increase youth vote turnout
Sep 13th
Link: Vote 2Moro: It Works – The Caucus – Politics – New York Times Blog
A new study released this week found that young people are more likely to vote by 4.2 percentage points if they receive a text message reminding them to show up to the polls.
The survey found that most of the recipients, and especially Hispanics, found the message helpful — unlike their reaction e-mail. But here’s the result that could be the most compelling to the campaigns: Each additional vote generated by the text message cost an average $1.56.
The iPhone didn’t outsell the Blackberry after all
Sep 7th
Link: iPhone didn’t beat ALL Blackberries in July – News – Tech.co.uk
As part of the ‘ooh look we sold truckloads of iPhones’ story that was around earlier this week, there was an interesting line from market research company iSuppli, claiming that it’d “comprehensively beaten its smartphone rivals – including RIM’s Blackberry series – to take the number one sales slot in July”
Obviously some people at RIM (who make the Blackberry) weren’t too chuffed about this, and a few phone calls later (probably involving highly paid lawyers) it emerged that what iSuppli meant to say was that the iPhone had outsold individual Blackberry models – not the range as a whole. In fact, the range as a whole outsold the iPhone by a factor of 2:1.>As the article in Tech points out, the iPhone has sold well. That’s an undisputable fact. However, claiming it’s beaten all your rivals – especially when most people think that a Blackberry is one device, and not a range of models – is not a very clever thing to do.
New research claims mobiles fry your cells
Aug 31st
Link: Cells ‘react’ to GSM signals claims research | The Register
New research claims that cells can react to a GSM-like signal in as little as ten minutes – though if whether this could causes cancer remains open to interpretation.
Those who believe that mobile phones do cause cancer, and/or a wide variety of other ailments, suffer from two problems: the fact that long-term studies have shown no causal link, and the fact that there is no known mechanism for phones to affect cells. This study would seem to address the latter issue.
Mobiles account for third of all UK calls
Aug 23rd
Link: BBC NEWS | Business | Mobile phones ‘eroding landlines’
According to a report from UK phone regulator Ofcom, calls made from mobiles now account for more than a third of all time spent on the phone.
Last year mobiles accounted for 82 billion minutes, out of an overall total of 234 billion. The report also said that 9% of UK households rely solely on a mobile, compared to 7% that only have a traditional landline phone.
Ofcom spokesman Peter Phillips said: “There are more households which are now mobile-only in terms of their phone. The first quarter of 2007 is the first time that has happened”.
10% growth in mobile social networking
Aug 16th
Social networking on mobiles has seen an increase recently, with market leaders MySpace and Facebook taking the top two places.
According to the latest m:metrics mobile phone usage survey, around 12.3m users in the US and Europe accessed a social networking site from their mobile in the three months ending June 2007. That equates to around 10% growth across both regions.
MySpace is way ahead in terms of mobile users, with 3.7m in the US and 440,000 in the UK. In comparison, Facebook has 2m mobile users in the US and around 307,000 in the UK.
The U.S leads the way with 3.5 percent of all mobile subscribers using their phones for social networking, followed by Italy with 2.8 percent. The U.K. trailed with 2.5 percent and Spain had 2.3 percent.
More interesting statistics in the m:metrics press release.
Mobile User-Generated Content Revenues to Rise Tenfold by 2012
Aug 13th
Link: Mobile User-Generated Content Revenues to Rise Tenfold by 2012
Social networking services will dominate a burgeoning market for mobile user-generated content, according to a new report from Juniper Research. Globally, end-user generated revenues from social networking, dating and personal content delivery services will increase from US$572 million in 2007 to more than US$5.7 billion in 2012, with social networking accounting for 50% of the total by the end of the forecast period.
According to report author Dr Windsor Holden, “Even though social networking sites are in their infancy, the exponential growth experienced by a number of mobile service providers – in some cases achieved primarily through viral marketing – would seem to affirm that there is huge potential in this area. The key challenge now is for those providers to monetise that interest.”
US operators make $5.85bn from mobile data in three months
Aug 13th
Link: US punters gobbling up mobile data | The Register
The Register is reporting that between April and June this year, the US wireless business made $5.85bn from data, an increase of seven per cent on the same period last year, and contributing nearly 17 per cent to total revenues.
In the UK, operators like data to be about 20 per cent of revenue, with some aiming for 25 per cent, but they always include SMS revenues in that figure, making it hard to establish just how many punters are really using the whiz-bang mobile data services.
In the US, around half of the data revenue is coming from new data services. T-Mobile, for example, is getting 53 per cent of its data revenue from non-messaging services.
There’s plenty more stats in the full report, courtesy of technology and strategy consultants Chetan Sharma.
89% of Americans support text driving ban
Aug 7th
Link: Nine of 10 Americans Would Support New Laws to Ban Driving While Texting, According to New Poll
Interesting news in from the US of A, with recent research showing that 89% of American adults believe that sending text messages or emails while driving is “distracting, dangerous, and should be outlawed”.
The survey, commissioned by mobile messaging service Pinger and conducted by Harris Interactive, also found that 91% of those questioned said they believed drivers distracted by tapping whilst driving were as dangerous as drivers who’d have a couple of drinks.
More on Pinger on a later blog entry, as I think it’s worth a separate post on it’s own. In the meantime, you can enjoy a few more stats from the original press release.
50% of European calls via mobiles by 2008
Jul 31st
Link: Half of European calls to be mobile by 2008 | The Register
Telecom and IT consultants Analysys are predicting half of all phone calls made in Europe will be made on our mobiles by 2008.
According to their report, Finland is the most mobile-using nation in Europe, with 74.6% of all phone calls made on the go during 2006. In Germany, 24.3% of all calls originated on mobile networks during the same period.
However, there’s a twist. This increase is not due to us making more calls on our mobiles – instead we’re relying on traditional fixed lines less. Good news for the mobile networks, but not so great for the traditional telcos.
Do you sleep with your Blackberry?
Jul 30th
Link: People Taking Their BlackBerry Handsets to Bed With Them
According to a recent research conducted for AOL by Opinion Research Corporation, 43% of American mobile email users are so addicted they take their device to bed with them.
The survey also found that the average email user checks mail about five times a day, and 59% with mobile email jump straight on the case everytime a new mail arrives.
Rather concerningly, around 40% of those surveyed plan their holiday around the availability of access to their email, and 83% admit to checking their mail while away.
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