Gadgety News

More Brit based gadgety news that goes further to prove how addicted to the bleeding-edge of technology the UK is.

Neilsen Online suggests that mobile web usage has increased by 25% between July and September of this year and that 7.3 million (up from 5.8 million) of Britons are now logging on through their mobiles.

It is largely ‘The Young’ (37’s still young, right?) who are causing this upsurge with 51% of mobile web users under the sprightly age of 35 (darn it!) and a quarter between the ages of 14 and 24.

Praps, unsurprisingly only 12% of users logging-on are over 55.  They’ve just sorted out texting so web-browsing should be next……..just think of all those Bingo sites getting hit up via the olds mobiles.

This increase is being put down to a number of factors: Technology to access the mobile interweb is starting to be more readily available and so more people are giving it a blast. Most new phones come with high-speed internet connections and many even feature Wi-Fi giving us internet access at the sort of speeds we’re used to at home (and sometimes for free ). 

I guess this is a good point to mention my favourite at the moment - the iPhone 3G.

Before you lot poo-poo the impact of the 3Gesus Phone; don’t you think it’s too much of a coincidence that the explosion in mobile web usage started in the same month that the iPhone 3G launched?  Yeah - how’s thems apples?

BBC news, Google Search and, of course Facebook, head up the leader-board of most viewed sites but it is maybe more interesting to see that, proportionally, a greater percentage of people view the BBC weather (how British?), Sky Sports and Gmail websites through their phones than they do on their home PCs. 

Kent Ferguson, Senior Analyst at Nielson suggests “this highlights the advantage of mobile when it comes to immediacy; people often need fast, instant access to weather or sports news and mobile can obviously satisfy this, wherever they are.”

With T-Mobile’s G1 and the Blackberry Storm (amongst many others) bursting onto the market the future of mobile web looks busy and bright.

The Telegraph

An AMD-commissioned YouGov research into British notebook usage has shown that most Brits would rather be hooked up to the interweb than own their own ride!

The study reveals that 90% of 18-24 year olds own a notebook with 73% saying that they “couldn’t live without” it.

I fear for Halfords - I really do!!

Britons apparently consider access to the internet (67%) as more important than access to a car (54%) or a washing machine (58%).

AMD suggests that the ”constantly-connected” Brits are shunning face-to-face get-togethers in favour of social networking sites and catching up with TV online.

The report states that almost half (41%) of men enjoy watching BBC iPlayer on their notebooks.

Men are the ones most likely to download music (71% men v 62% women) and the ladies are more interested in chatting with their friends and family on Instant Messenger (75% v 72% of men).

Now - I must get back to Twitter, check my email, see who’s online on MSN, AOL, ICQ….