Informate Mobile Intelligence – Metering the Third Screen

Launches quarterly report highlighting growing currency of mobile platforms after TV and Internet

Mumbai, November 04, 2009: Informate Mobile Intelligence, a specialized telecom research agency, today announced the launch of Informate Mobile Metrics Report highlighting the emerging trends in consumer mobile usage that provides integrated solutions for comprehensive consumer intelligence for the mobile industry in India.

The first two screens, namely TV and Internet have been metered for several years now. This involves syndication of key metrics like audience reach and usage. Informate aims to establish itself as a dominant currency information supplier in the mobile space (the third screen).

“There are now some 4 billion mobile phones in the world – four times as many as there are PC’s. The global revenue potential for these devices is significant: some $4.5 bn in advertising revenues and $25 bn in applications sales by 2013. Those who stand to benefit from these revenues include advertisers, applications developers, handset brands and carriers,” said Kedar Sohoni, President, Informate Mobile Intelligence.

Mr. Sohoni, however, said that at the moment such companies lack reliable behavioral data on a global scale to make media buying or developmental decisions. “They lack a “currency” and Informate aims to address this vacuum by becoming the gold standard for the global mobile industry by providing accurate and trusted data using industry leading metering and survey techniques,” he said.

The Informate report has rich granular data collected over the last six months on various aspects of phone usage among mid to high-end handset users. This segment spends more time on browsing, entertainment and on applications than on voice or text communication.

The report shows that Google remains the top website accessed on the mobile web in terms of unique users followed by Gmail, Yahoo, Orkut and Getjar with close to 40 minutes spent on browsing every day, while the top applications in terms of reach were Real Player, Visual Radio, Voice Recorder and Snake.

Mr. Gopala Krishna, MD & CEO at business consulting firm, HanIn, said, “With the mobile internet already becoming the fastest growing service in the world, we believe research like Informate Mobile Intelligence would become relevant for a variety of companies with consumer focused business models and not just with telecom companies, as it is now.”

Telecom analyst, Mr. Mahesh Uppal, who was a part of the panel, said, “The next phase of growth in the mobile sector will be driven by data & data rich services. All of them – both from a user perspective and from the point of view of the service provider – will require careful measurement of user behavior, so that the user gets a more customized product and the operator investment is more productive.”

Highlights of the report:

Time spent on Calling is comparatively high but shows downward trend.
On an average 25-30 minutes of active time is spent on voice calls.
Almost 15-20 minutes of the active time is spent on Messaging.
Time spent on chat shows upward trend.
On an average 40-45 minutes is spent on Entertainment activity.
Time spent on Multimedia activities is almost 5 times as compared to time spent on Games.
Media player & Gallery constitute major portion of the Multimedia time. It also shows upward trend month on month.

About the Product

Informate has developed metering software that works on all major platforms. This software is downloaded onto the mobile devices of the company’s panel members. These are people who have registered to participate in the metering as a research exercise. The software records all activities on the device, which is downloaded daily on to Informate’s servers. These then convert the data into reports that can be accessed by customers on a real time basis.
About Informate Mobile Intelligence

Informate Mobile Intelligence, an innovative and valuable service provider in the telecom industry, is the first company in India providing information based on actual mobile usage with the help of its on-device metering technology, which is installed on its panelists’ handset. With the high rate of innovation in handset features and upsurge of VAS services in the telecom market, there exists a need to tap the user behavior and preferences towards these products and services. Informate research will provide vital insights to the various players, including telecom operators, handset manufacturers, VAS application developers, Advertisers, etc. (visit www.informatemi.com)

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