Recession or not, for good reason there is no shortage of innovation in the mobile media industry (e.g. iPhone 3.0, the upcoming Palm Pre). The bottom line: consumers still want more! According to recent research across the U.S. and Western Europe conducted by The Nielsen Company on behalf of Tellabs, consumers are still bullish on the use of the mobile device beyond voice calling services and plan on continuing to adopt and use mobile data services. Of the 200 million current users of advanced mobile data services across the U.S. and Europe, almost 60% intend to use mobile data services more in the next 24 months, and of the millions of non-users, more than 25% intent to adopt mobile data services in the next 24 months.

Not only are U.S. users leading in their expectation of use of the mobile internet, but also in their frequency of use. Seventy one percent of current users expect to use the mobile internet daily, if not several times a day, whereas 41% of Europeans expect to have such a high frequency of use.

What’s driving this trend is consumer’s expectation of how using mobile data services will add convenience and improve their lifestyle, and how this aligns with current capabilities of the mobile platform. Making consumer’s lives easier is the most important factor driving increased use in the U.S.

When conducting the research, we also looked at other lifestyle factors including work, entertainment and socializing. The “work” lifestyle was also a big factor in boosting use of select mobile data services in the U.S. These differences emerge even in the use of software/applications – entertainment was more of a driving factor for use in France, Germany and Spain, but was not as relevant in the U.S.

Given the current capability of the mobile platform and consumer’s current perception of how they would use it, keep your eyes on mobile marketing applications focused on convenience (shopping, coupons, and commerce) first and pure entertainment down the road.

Television
-Men typically watch less TV than women their age — with one exception: male teens actually watch more TV than female teens.  Men ages 18 to 34 tend to watch more cable and pay channels, while women gravitate to broadcast networks.

-When it comes to sports programming on TV, men 18-34 are more attentive viewers (+12%) than women of the same age.  But when non-sports programming is on, the reverse is true: males 18-34 are 6% less attentive than their female counterparts.

-In general, men 18-34 are less attentive viewers of both sports (-8%) and non-sports (-10%) TV programs than older men ages 35 and up.

-Men 18-34 are also more receptive to product placements within TV programming than females their age; they report 26% higher brand opinion improvement for advertisers integrated into TV programs.

Online
-Online streaming videos of full-length TV episodes hold the attention of men 18-34 much more than the same programs on TV.

-In general, men 18-34 view more Web pages each month than women their same age (2,353 vs. 2,305 in August 2008).  Men 18-34 also view 63% more individual video streams than women their age (1.4 million vs. 893,000 streams in August 2008).  For their part, women typically spend more minutes watching videos online than men (4.1 minutes vs. 2.4 minutes), who prefer short-form videos on consumer-generated media sites like YouTube. 

Mobile
-Male mobile subscribers ages 18 to 34 are three times as likely as average mobile subscribers to watch video on their phones, and twice as likely as average mobile users to access the mobile Web.

-In Q2 2008, male mobile subscribers ages 18-34 sent and received more than twice as many text messages (531 texts on average, per month) as phone calls (246 calls on average, per month), while women 18-34 made slightly more mobile phone calls than men their age (251 vs. 246 calls per month).


Video Games
-Men ages 18 to 34 averaged approximately 19 gaming sessions in August, with the average session lasting about 66 minutes.  Among all males, men 18-34 accounted for 35% of all minutes played on gaming consoles in August.

-In comparison, women 18-34 logged fewer gaming sessions in August (just over 10, on average), but — like their male counterparts — averaged about 65 minutes of play per session.  Women 18-34 accounted for 39% of all minutes played by females on gaming consoles in August.

In contrast, John McCain’s campaign has largely eschewed mobile marketing.  But that may just be the right strategy, according to Nielsen Mobile, which reported Monday that mobile advertising is a more efficient way to reach Democrats, rather than Republicans.

As of the second quarter of 2008, mobile media of all types were slightly more popular among Democrats, who were more likely than their Republican counterparts to use data services on their mobile phones, send text messages, or use mobile Internet, according to Nielsen.

View the full media alert.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in MediaPost, Wireless and Mobile News, and Fierce Mobile Content.

But while mobile media use has grown rapidly in recent years, mobile advertising has been slow to take hold, Nielsen Mobile reported in a white paper released Tuesday.

In the U.S., some 76.8 million mobile users recall seeing advertising on their phones, according to Nielsen, but 63% report encountering mobile ads only infrequently — once a month or less.  Meanwhile, less than two-thirds of website homepage page views feature mobile advertising.

Lack of awareness of the size of the U.S. mobile audience, the complexity of the mobile marketing ecosystem, and advertisers’ reluctance to invest in mobile advertising are among the key factors restricting mobile ad growth, Nielsen’s analysts note.

View the full white paper.

Read MediaPost’s coverage of Nielsen’s findings.

Learn more about the outlook for mobile advertising – check out VentureBeat’s Q&A with Nielsen’s Senior Vice President of Mobile Media, Jesse Goranson

Meanwhile users across the U.S. and Europe commonly use their phones to access news and information online, Nielsen found. 

Entertainment, gaming, and music websites rank among the top five categories visited via the mobile Web in all four BRIC countries, while email, weather, news, and search are the top categories for both American and European mobile Internet users. 

In the U.S., entertainment, music, and games place eighth, ninth, and tenth respectively. 

View the full press release.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in the Business Standard and The Economic Times.

Nielsen’s data shows that U.S. and UK consumers are especially likely to view high-profile, short events, such as Track and Field and Gymnastics, on their mobile phones.  

The mobile Internet will also play a critical role in mobile Olympics viewing, with 23% of U.S. and 17% of UK mobile Internet users planning to track the Games through their phone browsers, according to Nielsen.

“Mobile media will change the way many consumers engage with this summer’s Olympic Games,” Kanishka Agarwal, Vice President of Mobile Media, Nielsen Mobile, noted.  “With millions of mobile users expected to follow the Games on their phone this summer, it’s no surprise that companies like NBC have optimized their mobile websites and developed compelling mobile content specifically for consumers looking to get a quick Olympic fix.”

View the full press release.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in The Canadian Press.

American consumers are particularly likely to view Olympics content on their phones, a recent survey by Nielsen Mobile found. 

Consumers in the UK and Spain also showed strong interest in watching the Beijing Games and receiving Olympics results from their mobile phones, according to Nielsen Mobile.  Those in the UK said they plan to read Olympics-related Web articles and monitor the medal count via their phones, while Spanish consumers reported they will most likely check TV schedules and view photos from the Olympics via their mobile phones.

As the Beijing Games approach, Olympics content is also in demand online. 

In the U.S. alone, Internet users ran 3.3 million search queries containing the term “Olympic” in June — up significantly from approximately 2 million Olympic related online queries in April and May, according to Nielsen Online.

The New York Times reported Monday that Encinitas, Calif.-based Verve Wireless, which helps newspaper publishers create news websites for cellphones, thinks it can.

Verve has already created mobile compatible versions of 4,000 U.S. newspapers — and it recently received a $3 million investment from the Associated Press.  The newspaper industry is betting that Verve’s mobile approach will help to boost dwindling newspaper readership, the Times reported.

The story noted that Americans are increasingly surfing the Web via their mobile phones: of the 95 million mobile Internet subscribers in the U.S., 40 million actively use their phones to go online — twice the number of two years ago, according to Nielsen Mobile.

The report found that mobile Internet penetration is highest in the U.S., where 15.6% of wireless subscribers use the Internet on their mobile devices. The U.K. followed, with a 12.9% mobile Internet penetration rate, while Italy took the third spot with an 11.9% penetration rate.

Those rates indicate that the mobile Internet market is mature enough to attract advertising, but it may take time for advertisers to migrate to the mobile Web. ”I think marketers need to continue to be convinced to take the leap into the mobile internet,” Nic Covey, Director of Insights, Nielsen Mobile, told the Post.

Read the full report.