Europe and U.S. Mobile Use Compared

A comparative analysis between European and American mobile usage trends was recently completed by Buongiorno, a digital entertainment multinational, and M:Metrics, a mobile market authority.

3G Usage and Mobile Videos
The data shows a direct correlation between 3G penetration and usage of these services, with Italy, Spain and the UK-the countries with the highest percentage of 3G subscribers -- posting the highest numbers in consumption of mobile video and photo messaging.

According to M:Metrics, more than 15 percent of UK 3G subscribers watched videos on their mobiles in January 2007. The mobile video market continues to grow, and is expected to generate 1.2 billion dollars at the end of 2006.

The trend also holds true in the usage of mobile music and full tracks. For example, in January 2007, 12 percent of British, 10 percent of Italian and 9 percent of Spanish mobile subscribers transferred music to their mobile device, versus only 3 percent of Americans.

Mobile Content Types
With the exception of text messaging, which is still far more common in Europe than it is in America, consumption of mobile content that does not require fast networks or high-end devices, is very similar across all the geographies. In fact, the United States outperforms most European geographies in the usage of mobile e-mail and instant messaging, but Europe and the U.S. are very similar for ringtones and graphics.

Mobile music is currently the largest sector of mobile entertainment (80 percent of mobile music revenue comes from ringtones).

The analysis found that the most significant difference between American and European mobile content consumers is in the usage of multimedia message service (MMS). In fact, between 20 and 31.5 percent of Europeans mobile subscribers reported that they used network services for photos or videos, while only 14.7 percent of Americans did.

There is (surprisingly) very little difference in the genres of news and information consumption but there is in the access method. EU5 prefer SMS alerts, U.S. browsing.