The iPhone dominates the smartphone market in mobile media consumption

According to a m:metrics report released today, the Apple iPhone keeps setting the bar for all other mobile devices. This time it is in the area of mobile media consumption and even before I checked the stats I knew the iPhone would reign here because this is one major reason I use my iPhone. The large, beautiful display and fast processor makes video viewing a real pleasure. According to m:metrics data 30.9 percent of iPhone owners watched mobile TV or video versus a 4.6 percent market average. It helps that Apple makes it very easy to get content on the iPhone using iTunes. The report doesn't specifically state what mobile TV and video is but there is a paragraph that includes YouTube content and it can't include streaming TV content on the iPhone since it doesn't currently support that functionality. It may include streaming TV content like Verizon Vcast though on smartphones. BTW, smartphones are devices running Windows Mobile, Symbian, and RIM operating systems.

It is quite staggering to check out the numbers in their table below since the iPhone is clearly the leader in browsing, web searching, video content, social networking and blogging, and music consumption.

"The iPhone has certainly delivered on its hype," said Mark Donovan, senior analyst, M:Metrics. "Beyond a doubt, this device is compelling consumers to interact with the mobile Web, delivering off-the-charts usage from everything to text messaging to mobile video."

The m:metrics data also has a table comparing mobile usage scenarios across the U.S., European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom over a 3-month period. The U.S. still lags way behind everyone else in text messaging, but our usage of mobile email and multimedia is on the rise.

Thanks to Alan Reiter for the heads-up on this report.