The iPhone already is the most popular device for accessing news and information on the mobile Web, with 85% of iPhone uses accessing news and information during January, reports M:Metrics.
M:Metrics Senior Analyst Mark Donovan says the iPhone is delivering “off-the-charts” usage from everything to text messaging to mobile video. The research firm found that a staggering 30.9% of iPhone owners watched mobile TV or video versus a 4.6% market average, and more than double the rate for all smartphone users. Social networking also is popular with iPhone users – nearly 12 times the market average. Twenty percent of iPhone owners accessed Facebook, one of the first Web properties to customize its content for the iPhone, versus 1.5% of the total mobile market.
As for YouTube and Google Maps, Donovan says those two featured widgets are extremely popular among iPhone users: 30.4% accessed YouTube and 36% used Google Maps, compared with only 1% of all mobile subscribers accessing YouTube and 2.6% checking out Google Maps.
M:Metrics found that iPhone users are more likely than the average mobile subscriber to be aged 25-34, earn more than $100,000 and have a college degree. Another thing: All iPhone on AT&T are attached to an unlimited data plan, and data shows once the fear of surprise data charges is eliminated, mobile content consumption goes up dramatically, regardless of device.