The results of the comScore 2012 Mobile Future in Focus report, which covers the activity taking place in various mobile markets around the world, were recently disclosed. Mobile device markets in countries such as France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, Japan, Canada and the U.S. were taken into consideration by the researchers.
According to this comScore report, 2011 saw the big fight between Android and iOS mobile platforms for grabbing the position of the number one OS. However, it was the former which emerged on top in this race. A significant growth was noted in the mobile app usage numbers in the U.S. as well as Europe. The fastest growing mobile media category in the U.S. was found to be Health which was followed by Retail and Electronic Payments and Auction Sites.
“2011 proved to be a groundbreaking year for the mobile industry, with smartphones hitting the mainstream, tablets emerging as a formidable fourth screen, and consumers increasingly integrating mobile behaviors into their lifestyles. As the industry continues to innovate and more consumers look to multiple devices and platforms to consume digital media, we expect the mobile and connected device landscape to be shaken up even further in 2012,” cited Mark Donovan, comScore Senior Vice President of Mobile.
He further added, “As mobile channels present a more personal, social, and ubiquitous experience to consumers, advertisers and publishers have an opportunity to better engage target audiences, given an understanding of how to connect and leverage the unique characteristics of these emerging platforms.”
Owing to the growth in app downloads and subsequent usage, the number of people logging onto social networking websites also increased. About 48.4 million EU5 smartphone users and 64.2 million U.S. smartphone owners admitted to having accessed social networking sites from their handsets at least once in December 2011.
Another finding of this comScore 2012 Mobile Future in Focus report was that the popularity of tablets also saw a surge all over the world in 2011, with almost 40 million units currently being used in the U.S.