zamano corporate blog

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Google still dominates the US and European mobile search, with a 60 per cent share of searchers in all countries.

ComScore M:Metrics says Google is the preferred brand for browser-based searches in the regions. It adds that 20.8 million US mobile subscribers used mobile search in June, up 68 per cent from 12 months earlier. In Europe, the figure hit 4.5 million - up 38 per from June 2007.

The UK had the highest penetration of mobile subscribers using search at 9.5 per cent, followed closely by the US at 9.2 per cent.

Yahoo! ranks second in Germany, Italy, UK and the US. In the latter, Yahoo’s  mobile search penetration is 34.6 per cent, more than double its share in most other countries.

A UK tech company has developed a way of using encrypted SMS to transfer data when GPRS or 3G is unavailable.

Masabi believes the breakthrough could transform the mobile commerce/content sector by opening it up to the 40 to 50 per cent of users who cannot connect over the air – or have incorrect mobile data settings. It also solves issues of poor signal strength, fast moving vehicles and international roaming.

Additionally, users with no data contract, such as in the developing world, can side-load applications over cable, Infra-Red and Bluetooth, and then use the networked applications purely over SMS.

The number of mobile phone users in the US reached 262.7 million, equivalent to a penetration rate of 86.4 per cent.

Trade body the CTIA says the 1H08 subs figure represents a year-on-year increase of nearly 20 million customers. The industry’s 12-month record for subscriber growth was reached in 2005, when 25.7 million new users came online.

CTIA added that wireless data service revenues increased by 40 per cent year-on-year to $14.8 billion in the half-year. Wireless data (including SMS) now accounts for 20 per cent of all US wireless revenues.