Mobile owners are increasingly using their smartphones to access the internet in preference of traditional PCs and laptops according to a new survey carried out by Prosper Mobile Insights.

The company, which looked into the internet habits of adults from across the world, found that seven out of ten smartphone users complete at least one web-based activity on their phone in favour of a PC or laptop, regardless of whether they are on the move or at home.

More than half of respondents (51.1%) admitted to checking their emails using only a mobile device, while 45.3% completed mobile-only web searches and 42.3% used only their phone to connect to Facebook.

All this means that today’s leading brands have an increasing need to embrace mobile advertising. But as the survey shows, they need to be aware of which ads their customers will be most receptive to. Around 1 in 10 people said they pay regular attention to sponsored stories or links, ads that play before or during a video, and video ads in general.

Video ads are the most popular with 42.9% of respondents saying they are more likely to grab their attention than other forms of advertising. The most successful video ads are ones you cannot click away from, with 30.4% of people confirming that they pay more attention to this video format.

The survey made clear that marketers should make sure that ads are delivered to the right audience. 33.5% of people said they are more likely to pay attention if the ad is relevant, 24.2% claimed they are looking for informative ads and 23.9% are more likely to be responsive to eye-catching advertising.

The world of mobile advertising is still in its infancy and there are limitless opportunities for marketers to promote their brands to a global audience. For all the latest news on how to benefit from mobile marketing head down to the Mobile World Congress 2013 in Barcelona’s Fira Gran Via, 25-28 February. If you’re after accommodation then look no further than EAS, your friendly local travel agents. We’ll find you the best hotels and rented apartments right in the heart of Barcelona. Or if you prefer, why not try one of our luxury yachts – the choice is yours. We’ll also organise all your transportation needs and book you into the city’s best restaurants. Just click on this link to fill in our request form.

Andrew Seybold and the GSMA have announced a new educational session, Mobile Today and Tomorrow, to be held at the 2013 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. This session will be held on Monday, February 25, in Room CC2 starting at 10:00a.m.
Andrew Seybold, Inc. has been providing its Wireless University the day prior to CTIA Wireless for 17 years—more than 4,000 people have attended. Andrew Seybold, Inc. has provided education, consulting, and publishing services for the mobile industry for 20+ years and has an established worldwide practice.
Mobile Today and Tomorrow is designed for those within the mobile industry who need to know about the transition to next-generation mobile technology, devices, and applications. For the first time in the history of mobility, a worldwide standard is being deployed. Learn from the successes and failures of network operators that deployed this technology early. Learn what is happening around the world and steps being taken to enable world devices. Learn how and when voice will be migrated to this new technology, about the impact of adding voice to a data-first network, its effect on battery life, and what will come next with LTE Advanced.
For more information and to register for this session please go to (TK). Register early, seats are limited. Please note that this is a separate registration and you must also be registered to attend Mobile World Congress 2013 in order to qualify for enrollment.

The UK is now the world leader when it comes to mobile web use according to a new report by the country’s media regulator Ofcom. Brits now watch more television online, spend more on internet shopping and use tablets to access the web more than any other population.

The report, which compared data from 17 of the world’s leading economies, showed the UK leapfrogging Japan at the top of the list thanks to an obsession with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and online music services. The amount of data Brits download per month on tablets and mobiles now stands at 424 megabytes, more than 60 percent up on a year ago. In total, 16 percent of all website traffic in the UK comes from mobile devices.

“Our research reveals that the UK leads the way in using the internet on the move. Increasingly, it’s mobile devices like smartphones and tablets that are driving this growing demand for data – and in the UK it seems to be social networking sites that are behind this in particular,” stated Ofcom’s director of research James Thickett.

British 18-24-year-olds are the world’s top mobile social networkers with 62 percent accessing their profiles from smartphones and tablets, a larger proportion than any other country surveyed.

Internet shopping in the UK also topped the charts with consumers now spending an average of £1,083 online, almost £250 more per person than second placed Australia. A total of 23 percent of Brits have visited a retail website on their mobile phones, the highest percentage in Europe.

According to Ofcom a cultural habit of catalogue shopping, high credit card take-up and the early arrival in the UK of internet giants such as Amazon and eBay are reasons behind the high level of internet shopping in the country.

The Ofcom report, known as the International Communications Market Report, is an annual survey, which compares data across 17 countries including the UK, France, Germany, Spain, USA, Italy, Australia, Japan, Brazil and China.

For more information on the use of mobile internet worldwide head down to the GSMA Mobile World Congress 2013, February 25-28 at the Fira Gran Via in Barcelona. For the best hotels, rented apartments and other accommodation choices contact EAS, your local travel agents. With our expert knowledge and experience we’ll make sure you have an unforgettable stay. And we’ll even organise your transportation and nightly entertainment too. Click on this link to fill in our request form.

Mobile phones have overtaken desktops as the most common way in which people in China connect to the internet.

The Chinese government announced in July that the number of web users in the country had now reached 538 million, meaning that nearly four out of 10 of its 1.3 billion people now use the web.

A report from the China Internet Network Information Center (CINIC) also reported that mobile internet users now number 388 million, which is up almost 10 percent since the start of 2012, while 380 million use computers.

The key cause for this growth has been put down to the fall in smartphone costs, which has seen an increase in the number of rural mobile users in China. More than 50 percent of the year’s new internet users were from China’s rural areas according to the report.

“Mobile phones are a cheaper and more convenient way to access the internet for residents in China’s vast rural areas and for the enormous migrant population,” the report said. “Meanwhile, mobile phone prices continued to drop – the emergence of smartphones under 1,000 yuan ($157) sharply lowered the threshold for using the devices and encouraged average mobile phone users to become mobile web surfers,” the report concluded.

China is now the largest smartphone market in the world with 33 million mobile phones sold in the country over the past 12 months compared with 25 million in the USA during the same time, with a growth rate at a stunning 164 percent.

Is this the beginning of the Chinese dominance of the world’s mobile phone market? Head to next year’sMobile World Congress in Barcelona to find out. For the best in accommodation, arranged transportation, hotel recommendations, and anything else you can think of to make your stay in Barcelona one to remember, look no further than EAS, the travel agent you can trust.

With our expert local knowledge we can source rooms in the best hotels, find you the most centrally located apartments, organise airport transfers and other transportation needs, and even arrange yacht and aircraft charters. Click on this link for more information.

The amount of money spent on mobile phones and related services will reach more than $1 trillion for 2012, meaning that almost half of global consumer tech spending now goes towards the mobile sector.

A report recently released by Gartner shows that mobile services are expected to generate 37 percent of global consumer technology spending in 2012 at $800 billion, while the sale of mobile phones will account for 10 percent at $222 billion.

By 2016 these figures will increase to $1 trillion and $300 billion respectively, illustrating just how dominant the global mobile industry is becoming.

Addition mobile technology will also benefit with spending on apps expected to rise from $18 billion this year to more than $60 billion by 2016. Spending on e-books, online news and other information services is expected to account for $16 billion alone by 2016.

“There are two product classes, which in term of absolute dollars are significantly smaller, but offer tremendous growth by 2016. These are mobile apps stores and e-text content. We expect consumers to more than triple their spending in these latter two categories by 2016,” explained Amanda Sabia, principal research analyst at Gartner.

In addition to mobile phones and services, the other major segment of the consumer technology market is entertainment services such as cable, satellite, IPTV and online gaming. At present this accounts for 10 percent of consumer spending at $210 billion in 2012, but is expected to rise to almost $290 billion by 2016.

To see if Gartner’s figures are correct head down to the Mobile World Congress 2013 in Barcelona, February 25-28. If you’re after accommodation then look no further than EAS, your friendly local travel agents. We’ll find you the best hotels and rented apartments right in the heart of Barcelona, organise all your entertainment needs and arrange transportation. Just click on this link to fill in our request form.

Expect big things in the coming years when it comes to mobile payments, at least that’s what the latest report from ABI Research is telling us.

According to the research firm, 2013 will be the year when Near Field Communication (NFC) leaves its ‘trial phase’ behind and becomes more widespread with 285 shipments of NFC-enabled smartphones expected worldwide.

Recent predictions also suggest that by 2017 the total number of shipments with NFC will come close to a staggering 2 billion including media tablets, gaming consoles and PC accessories, in addition to smartphones.

The technology is mainly seen as offering contactless payments in stores where customers swipe their device over payment terminals equipped with contactless NFC readers. However, the addition of online/offline authentication, retail and loyalty applications, reader functionality and advertising will give service providers news streams of revenue.

Android and WP8 operating systems are already pushing the NFC handset market forward and are even beginning to build into other devices with the addition of NFC into Android tablets and Windows PCs.

However, industry experts believe that touchless mobile payment solutions won’t really take off until Apple enters into the market. The firm has been typically secretive so far about its plans to add NFC functionality into its future iPhones. It may well be that Apple is waiting for others to make the initial move before it makes any decisions.

Whatever Apple decides to do, mobile E-commerce is expected to exceed $1 trillion worldwide by 2017 and NFC is set to become the most popular payment platform followed by point-of-sale payments.

If you want more information on the future of mobile payments and NFC head down to the Mobile World Congress 2013 in Barcelona. For the best in accommodation, arranged transportation, hotel recommendations, and anything else you can think of to make your stay in Barcelona one to remember, look no further than EAS, the travel agent you can trust. With our expert local knowledge we can source rooms in the best hotels, find you the most centrally located apartments and organise all your transportation needs. We’ll even arrange yacht and aircraft charters. Click on this link for more information.