New Delhi March 1, 2012. The tipping point has been reached. More users look at mobile phone screens than at TV screens!

The largest independent mobile ad network, InMobi, unveiled the results of its global Mobile Media Consumption Survey at the ongoing Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona.
The survey, conducted in 18 markets across all continents, revealed interesting insights about mobile users in India. According to the survey, covering more than 2,200 respondents across the country, mobile Internet users spend 33% of their media time on mobile - higher than any other media, including TV that received 27% of their media time. These users spend an average of 94 minutes per day on their mobile for content consumption, excluding time spent on SMS or voice calls.

Mobile consistently scored higher than other medium across a variety of activities for mobile Internet users in India. These include entertainment (41% on mobile compared to 26% on TV), information access (58% on mobile compared to 20% on TV), communication (not surprisingly, 72% on mobile compared to 16% on desktop and laptops) and shopping, including activities related to shopping such as search (27% on mobile compared to 19% on desktop and laptops).

72% of all mobile Internet users in India use the mobile as their exclusive or primary means of accessing the web. This trend is common across various demographic groups, with the numbers being as high as 59% for Mobile Mothers and 71% for Late Adopters.

According to the survey, developing countries such as India outscored nations such as South Korea, Singapore and Australia on mobile centricity, a measure of relative importance of mobile compared to other media in these markets. This suggests that mobile activity is widespread and deeply entrenched amongst consumers in India.

Atul Satija, Vice-President and Managing Director of InMobi Asia Pacific, said, “It is not entirely surprising to find that mobile has become an inseparable part of Indian consumers’ lives. The results underline the sweeping changes taking place in media consumption habits across the world, more so in India. Businesses that will succeed in the next 3 to 5 years will be the ones that are able to fully comprehend the power of the medium and harness its potential”.

The survey also uncovered insights on Indian mobile Internet users’ purchasing behaviour on mobile devices. 3 out of 4 mobile users surveyed found mobile advertising to be useful, and a staggering 60% of mobile Internet users had transacted using their mobile device. Interestingly, 50% of India consumers who haven’t engaged in mobile commerce yet, revealed that they plan to do so in the next 12 months.

InMobi’s Mobile Media Consumption Survey was carried out on its global mobile ad network between September and November 2011 using Decision Fuel’s and On Device Research’s mobile web platforms to collect a representative sample, including a full range of Smart-phone and feature phone users. The sample was weighted according to available mobile web demographics and included 20,000 mobile consumers in 18 markets across all continents.

InMobi is the largest independent mobile advertising network. and now delivers the ability to reach 485 Million consumers, in over 165 countries, through more than 93.4 Billion mobile ad impressions monthly. www.inmobi.com/research

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