Smartphones bigger than social?

One of the things I find surprising is how many marketing people diss iphones and apps as a niche market.

My favourite was hearing that the buzz around apps is driven by the fact creative directors have iphones yet don't realise that nobody else does. Of course now you can buy an iphone on Orange, Vodafone and at Tesco (and it is rumoured that TMobile and Virgin will get you one if you shout loud enough) as well as O2, that myth is evaporating.

But I was delighted to see some new data which shows that more people have iphones than use Twitter;

Admob have an interesting post showing Apple had shipped 78million devices by the end of 09

And BBH Labs pointed out research showing that Twitter had 75 million user accounts at the end of 09. And the research points out that in December only 17% of those accounts actually tweeted - supporting their view that;

A large percentage of Twitter accounts are inactive, with about 25% of accounts having no followers and about 40% of accounts having never sent a single Tweet.

Add to that one of my favourite stats - since the start of 2007 Canalsys data shows that over 350 million smartphones have shipped. So the number of people with Smartphones is around the same as the number of Facebook users.

Now I'm a big fan of Twitter and Facebook - and social in general - but this data supports my view that brands would be much better off investing in a smart mobile strategy than jumping into social.

And the future of social is all about mobile any way.

 Cross posted from Addictive

Comments

[Simon]

Hi - we don't diss iphones but we do think that at the moment they are niche. The mobile internet hasn't been properly explained to the average person. They think email/browsing, when the comparative advantage of the mobile internet is in its mobility and proximity. Our research found that services that support these functions (such as location based services or vouchering) are by far the most popular. If only they were emphasised more in the communication - beyond a small audience, Facebook on the go isn't really that appealing!

Simon

[Simon Andrews]

I hadn't seen your research - which looks fascinating. But looking at admob data showing how much browsing is done; some stats I saw saying 10% of the population check their email on mobile and 3 billion app downloads suggest people see some benefit.
There is lots more to do but as your own research shows almost a quarter of the population do use their mobile to access the internet - which is 50% more than read the Sun - hardly a niche.
If you look back to when the web had similar user numbers to smartphones now you find it was right in the middle of the dotcom boom in 1999.
I don't disagree the industry needs to do more education but significant numbers of people already get it. Thinking of this as a niche is wrong.

[Michael Schaefer]

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on Apple's vision for the 'in between' market (between smart phones and laptops). If location based services are the way forward, and I think Simon is right, I'm real curious to see how the iPad takes advantage of that. At this point, beyond their loyal fan base, I'm thinking Apple got it wrong: not enough battery; too expensive; not obvious how to conveniently take advantage of location based services. If they can get the model and functionality right, the biggest opportunity I see for the iPad is as a super e-book/e-newspaper reader. Will Apple save the press?

[Simon Andrews]

I think the ipad looks interesting - but the big question is how big is the in between market?
Because iphone apps will work on the ipad we'll see this as a navigation device that is one more nail in the coffin of tom tom etc.
And talking to big publishers they are very focused on this space - like the NYT they do see this as a way of saving the press
Time will tell, but i'll be in the queue for one.