I have been talking a lot recently about the growth in the mobile internet and the opportunities that this offers cultural institutions. This week I came across two more facts to back up the rise of the smartphone as a platform which we need to give serious thought to.
Outnumbered?
An article on Bloomberg this week highlighted a report from Gartner Inc. which forecasts that smartphone sales will triple from 139.3 million worldwide in 2008 to 491.9 million by 2012, over the same period the PC market will expand from 290 million unites to 443.1 million.
The will mean that more people will have access to the internet via a smart phone then a desktop PC, and I think this will be especially significant for cultural venues who will be able to deliver information on the move to their audiences.
Social Mobile
New research released at the start of March shows that more then 30% of smart phone users (11.1 percent of all mobile phone) in North America accessed Facebook or Twitter on their mobiles.
While 30% of 11.1% might not seem like a significant number, the rise in usage over the past 12 months is impressive with access to Facebook growing 112% and access to Twitter jumping 347%.
A Facebook and Twitter presence obviously offer museums and galleries one route to smart phone users.
