The world’s mobile users triggered off a sharp hike in traffic while looking for live scores and the latest updates during the ongoing FIFA World Cup. Telecom research agency, Informate Mobile Intelligence has announced  highlights from its Mobile Metrics Report on the actual mobile usage during the ongoing FIFA World Cup 2010 which capture interesting trends observed during the games.
The report shows that nearly 59% of the mobile users surveyed expressed an interest in watching a live telecast of the match on their mobile phone, signifying increased awareness and expectations from mobile phones and pointing towards the potential for 3G services in India in the future. With regard to content, games featured on the top of the list followed by mobile themes, wallpapers and ringtones.
“The response received from mobile users during FIFA 2010 has indicated large data consumption indicating the change in the behavior pattern of masses in India. These changes are redefining how consumers in India are now open to consume entertainment, news and more on their mobile phone opening a huge market for VAS providers. We expect that the shift to 3G will offer an easy and never-before mobile internet experience for consumers, with access to data-rich services and applications.”, says Kedar Sohoni, President, Informate Mobile Intelligence.

Highlights of the report:

ESPN sites [ MobileESPN & ESPN go] followed by the official FIFA site had the highest reach amongst sports sites which had football coverage.

Mobile applications such as the Nokia Goal 2010, Soccer Updater and Mondiali 2010 were the popular sports applications based on World Cup 2010.

Amongst the content related to football that they had downloaded or were likely to download, football games figured in the top [44%] followed by themes [42%], wallpapers [39%] and ringtones [38%].

July 4 2010