Mobile Will Rise, Despite the Economic Downturn

The Kelsey Group and ConStat apparently released a report in November which said that 10 percent of U.S. mobile users accessed social networks over their mobile devices. (The study was picked up by Mediapost just last week.) Ten percent of anything may seem small, but this is one of those reports that may actually telegraph the start of something big; the financial crisis looks unlikely to stifle the overall trend.

The study, among more than 500 mobile users over the age of 18, showed that the number of those that use mobile devices to access their social nets has tripled in the last year. The story in Mediapost points out other factoids about the rise of social networking via mobile device: Facebook’s app for the iPhone is the 12th most downloaded at the iPhone app store, and worldwide, usage of Facebook via mobile device has tripled in the last year to 15 million users.

But one other fact from the study really jumped out. Even though the study was conducted in October, when the deep economic chill had taken hold, almost half of those surveyed said they planned to buy an “advanced” mobile device in the next two years; economy be damned!

As during the last recession, we may find that adaption of new technology and new consumer habits marches onward despite economic disarray. That was certainly true when the dot-com bubble burst. As a reporter then, I can remember being on the phone with countless ad execs at the time who seemed almost giddy that that silly Internet thing was over and they could get back to business as usual. I’d retort that, in fact, people were using the Internet more than ever, so not to get too comfortable about retrenching. It may be happening again.