Highlights of 2013 for Mobile Digital Radio

exaget - exactly on target2013 has been an exciting year.  Although we don’t yet have final published data for 2013 we thought we would give you what we at Exaget see as the highlights for mobile digital radio.

UK Radio listening via a mobile phone has shown consistant growth from 20% of adults listening in Q1 2013 to 24% Q3 2013. Up 38% year on year with over 40% of 15-24 year olds also having claimed to have ever listened to radio via a mobile phone. (RAJAR)

Total mobile Adspend in H1 2012 was £188.1m and reached £429.2m in H1 2013 soaring by 127% like–for-like growth. Mobile accounts for 14% of total digital Adspend. The growth in mobile advertising spend in the UK shows no signs of abating, and should represent nearly one-quarter of display spending and more than one-fifth of search by 2014, according to estimates from media investment management firm GroupM. IAB research also reveals that nearly 40% or respondents claimed that new budgets are being allocated for mobile.

We saw Apple enter the market with ITunes Radio: Pandora’s rival Internet radio service (ITunes Radio) launched on September 18 in the US and notched up more than eleven million unique listeners in the first five days after its launch on iOS7 and the desktop ITunes software. Last month, Apple revealed that iTunes Radio has reached 20 million users listening to a billion songs. ITunes Radio is due for release in the UK in early 2014.

In car internet radio seems to be a possibility soon as companies like Toyota, Nissan, Ford etc. plan to launch new cars with built in “Internet Radio Panels”. Earlier this year Ford had announced a new developer program which will allow radio stations to gain space on a vehicles digital screen via apps. The Ford SYNC app link already includes a way to listen to the radio via smartphones.

Smartphone sales account for more than half of global mobile phone market up nearly 50 per cent on last year, More than 250 million smartphones were sold worldwide in the third quarter, a 46 per cent increase on the 171 million sold for the same period last year. The research indicated that global mobile phone sales will reach 1.81 billion for all of 2013, a 3.4 per cent increase on 2012.

Android has also furthered its dominance, with more than eight in 10 smartphones sold in the third quarter of 2013 using the operating system. Android continued to dominate the number one OS spot in the UK with 58.4 per cent of the market. Apple iOS remains in second position with 28.7 per cent Windows Phone continues to improve with share of seven per cent, up 4.1 per cent from a year ago, but BlackBerry’s share fell 10.2 per cent to 5.1 per cent.

Samsung leads this market with 32.1% of global market share followed by apple at just 12.1% in Q3-2013.

In the UK Smartphone penetration remained at 63 per cent, with smartphones making up 84 per cent of mobile sales. Android continued to dominate the number one OS spot in the UK with 58.4 per cent of the market. Apple iOS remains in second position with 28.7 per cent Windows Phone continues to improve with share of seven per cent, up 4.1 per cent from a year ago, but BlackBerry’s share fell 10.2 per cent to 5.1 per cent.

So all is moving in the right direction………..already looking forward to see what 2014 has in store for us.