Nielsen: Mobile Internet usage grows

Posted by Erina Lin on October 2, 2009 at 11:43 AM

Mobile Internet usage in the United States is up, mostly driven by smartphones like the iPhone, according to a Nielsen report. However, only about one out of four wireless subscribers logged onto the mobile Web in July, Media Week reported.

According to Nielsen, mobile Internet users accounted for 56.9 million in July, up 34 percent from 42.5 million last year.

However, another Nielsen report published in January pointed out that there were close to 225 million mobile subscribers in the U.S., which means only one-fourth of them use mobile Internet. It's still lower than PC Web usage and lagging far behind mainstream media such as TV.

Surprisingly, although many young urban adults and business travelers contributed to so many iPhones and Blackberry device purchases, it's teens and seniors whose usage has spiked, with a 45 percent and 67 percent surge in usage among teens 13-17 and users 65 and older, respectively, in July.

The mobile Web users still skews male (53 percent), but the number for women is growing fast. Nielsen said in July female users soared by 43 percent, compared to only a 26 percent growth among men, Media Week reported.

In addition, while men prefer to access online content of technology news, sports and games via mobile, women tend to use it more for social networking and shopping. The top male-skewing mobile sites in July included NBA.com, NFL.com, IGN.com and CNET.com, while for women they were Target.com, MySpace.com, Facebook.com and Kraft.com.