Major milestone has passed, over half of internet access is now from mobile (says Nokia)

Our regular readers knew to expect this, as I told you a year ago we were about to cross the threshold. We found some analysts coming with the calculations last year that could be interpreted that we had reached the point, but now the first major source says the point has passed. Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said at CES this week that today the majority of internet services are accessed on mobile phones globally, not from PCs. He was quoted in Broadband Finder.
 
Several important points. First, that recently, past few years, especially after the Apple iPhone came along, it has become 'mantra' and many have joined in believing in this trend, that it is inevitable that soon the majority of internet access will be from mobile phones. As we've reported here, in many Emerging World countries form Bangladesh to South Africa the ratio is more than 4 to 1 and as much as 10 to 1 where more mobile users access internet services (including WAP services) on their phones than on PCs. Even many advanced countries like Japan and Taiwan report the same milestone having passed. Now Nokia says the global milestone has passed.

Secondly, before the iPhone appeared, there were many telecoms companies who thought this would happen such as Ericsson, Nokia, Nortel, Lucent, Alcatel, Siemens, Motorola etc. That was to be expected. The more astonishing company to say so four years ago, was the world's biggest internet company, Google, who started to preach the mobile mantra around mid-2005. They have since said everywhere, that the internet was headed to mobile. It is there today.

And who was the first author to tell you that? It was me in my 2002 book M-Profits, and I have repeated the position in every one of my books since, to reinforce the position and to remind my readers that this is something I believed in passionately. Nice to see its now happened.

One more thing - remember, that the way Nokia calculated it, is the definition of 'access to internet services' which could be said to be the definition of the 'mobile internet' as distinct from using a phone to access the 'real internet'. On for example an iPhone, you tend to access the real internet. On WAP phones you access a more limited service called the 'mobile internet'. But any major internet service like Google, Yahoo, Amazon, eBay, YouTube, MySpace etc - will be available on WAP as well as many 'email' solutions which are not 'the real internet' like say Nokia's Ovi based email or Blackberry's email - but these access the same 'internet email' that we all use. So it is this 'broad' definition of the 'mobile internet' which now gives us this milestone. It will also eventually happen that the users of the 'real internet' will exceed PC based internet access, but that won't happen still for several years.

And in case you have been under the illusion that the 'mobile internet' is somehow 'inferior' to the 'real internet' - that is a dangerous illusion indeed. You should read this blog explaining why the two are as different as TV is from radio. And yes as I explain in my latest hardcover book, the 'mobile internet' as the 7th mass medium, is indeed the TV in that analogy, and the old-fashioned 'legacy' internet on PCs, what you may call the 'real internet' as the 6th mass medium is not only different, but it is the lesser opportunity, like radio is to TV. This view, originally seen as very much heresy, is now accepted ever more widely, so you may want to read why the mobile internet is not only different, but economically far more lucrative than the 'real' internet.

For any of our readers who want to understand mobile internet definitions and user numbers by the various definitions, please send me an email to tomi (at) tomiahonen (dot) com and I will send you a 2 page 'Thought Piece' on Mobile Internet and Mobile Data, by return email.

Comments

[David Cushman]

When's the next milestone? 75% by 2012?

[Romain Criton]

Hi Tomi, do you think they are counting in Internet access over cellular networks from laptops and netbooks ?
I have seen several studies in the past that made no distinction between mobile Internet access from a PC and mobile internet access from an actual mobile device, which does not make much sense to me for now, since a netbook or laptop still accesses "ol' plain Internet" even when using a mobile network...

[Replica watch]

Hi, where did you get this information can you please support this with some proof or you may say some good reference as I and others will really appreciate. This information is really good and I will say will always be helpful if we try it risk free. So if you can back it up. That will really help us all. And this might bring some good repute to you.

[karemillen]

The new brand of clothes are nothing like the old one. Right now, almost everything is done in different countries and then imported to the United States to be sold to consumers.

[true religion outlet]

I really think it’s really silly. For the record, I of course believe in God. I believe in one god. If people must know my religious beliefs, I believe in one god. I don’t believe in religions. I don’t believe in Christians or Muslims. I think that separates people. I think its one god, I think it’s all the same god, and I don’t believe in hell. But as far as God, of course I believe in God. Am I a part of some type of sect or cult? That sounds stupid to me. It’s like ignorant to even say. And I guess that’ll be th
e last time I address that.

[Kamagra]

Skönt att vara besöka din blogg igen, har det varit månader för mig. Väl här artikeln som jag har väntat så länge. Jag behöver den här artikeln för att slutföra mitt uppdrag i kollegiet, och den har samma tema med din artikel. Tack, bra aktie.@@@

[ゼチーア]

Hola,Ha hecho un trabajo muy bueno. Hay muchas personas en busca de eso ahora van a encontrar suficientes fuentes por tus consejos.espera para obtener más consejos acerca de que

[kamagra]

Hey,Thanks for posting this story..Nice article.

[Kamagra Deutschland]

It is utterly right. I admire your thoughts and perception. Hope to see new
updates from your soon. Thanks for sharing.

[Yves Saint Laurent]

Generally I do not post on blogs, but I would like to say that this post really forced me to do so, Excellent post!

[cheap jewelry]

Thanks for your share,thanks a lot.Good luck!

[replica jewelry]

Thanks for your share,thanks a lot.Good luck!

[pandora]

good article,if you want to know information,you can visit our website http://www.hotpandorajewelry.com/.

[Caverta]

Great information you got here. I've been reading about this topic for one week now for my papers in school and thank God I found it here in your blog. I had a great time reading this.

[buy cipro]

I am very happy to read this article..thanks for giving us this useful information.

[prada]

Questo blog ha attirato la mia attenzione e ho pensato che avrei post per farvi sapere che.

[Lancel]

Je suis un passionné de blog et des blogs tant sur l'Internet aujourd'hui, très peu se démarquer. Ce blog a attiré mon attention et j'ai pensé que je poste pour que vous sachiez que.

[no deposit casinos]

Hay muchas personas en busca de eso ahora van a encontrar suficientes fuentes por tus consejos.espera para obtener más consejos acerca de que

[Abercrombie]

Governo primo ministro greco George Papandreou, sull'orlo del collasso, time pronto any incontrare l'opposizione su richieste di not governo di transizione. Che haya gettato inside piani dubbio every not referendum sul cello di salvataggio UE di Grecia. Il voto minacciata l . a . scorsa settimana tanto atteso accordo every ridurre debito greco elizabeth rafforzare not fondo di salvataggio della zona pound male impotence è stato effettivamente visto appear not referendum every l'adesione della Grecia nel blocco dell'euro.

[Woolirch]

Oggigiorno, apertura Woolrich accessibile sul mondo. Sembra che si tratta di accettare aggiunto aggiunto difficile da atomo elizabeth comprare any 20 carati Woolrich giacca any vento sulla banda abominevolmente every motivi abbondante. Ecco alcuni dei più facili mezzi every atomo falsi Woolrich.