Apple iPhone's Ease of Use Encouraging Mobile Internet Usage

At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, members of the mobile phone industry met for a three day conference. The iPhone appears to have already had a large effect on the mobile phone industry, with many showing off iPhone clones.

Apple was able to make a phone that paid equal attention to the software and the hardware. And the rest of the industry was following suit here.

EETimes notes that in one conference entitled "It's the User Experience, Stupid", a blue-ribbon panel of human behavior and technology experts agreed that the iPhone represents a model for mobile operators to follow. They agreed that the existing user interfaces on mobile phones were poor compared to the iPhone and suggested that the iPhone's simply structured internet plans may also serve to encourage mobile internet usage. One ongoing hurdle to mobile internet usage has been the presence of confusing data service plans for consumers, resulting in cautious use, due to consumer fear of accumulating large service charges.

Indeed, it appears that iPhone owners are using the internet many times more than their non-iPhone counterparts. Google revealed that there are 50 times more searches originating from the iPhone than any other mobile handset. The discrepancy was so great that Google initially thought it was a mistake. This finding has also been reported by O2 who found that 60% of U.K. iPhone users are sending or receiving more than 25 MB of data a month.

Mobile internet usage remains a growing and potentially profitable market, but has been largely untapped with existing mobile phones.