Nielsen data, published recently in eMarketer, reveals that more than 1 in 4 Americans now has mobile internet access via their smartphone.

Earlier Projections Exceeded

This increased ownership of smart devices is driving growth in mobile internet usage. The acceleration of this trend has led eMarketer to raise its forecast relative to the estimates released in November 2009. According to eMarketer projections, 85.5 million mobile users will access the web from their mobile devices in 2010, versus 83.5 million in the previous forecast.

In 2013, penetration will reach the halfway mark, and by 2014, 142.1 million users, representing 53.9% of the US mobile user population, will access the internet using mobile browsers or applications.

NGOs are struggling to adjust to this rapid growth in mobile browsing, even as mobile banking — a mobile financial action related to online giving — soars.

ur mobile provides a very low cost — yet very powerful — mobile browser platform for nonprofits. Check out their latest release features now»

June 2, 2010: comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released a report on the fastest-growing mobile application and browser content categories based on data from its MobiLens service.

Social Network & Mobile Banking Growth Leaders

The report found that social networking led as the top-gaining category for both application and browser access, confirming the surging popularity of this service on mobile devices. The study also found that accessing Bank Accounts was one of the fastest-gaining categories via both app and browser, as the convenience of mobile banking continues to appeal to a growing number of consumers.

Both of these sectors are highly relevant and important to NGOs both in terms of spreading their message and raising money via mobile.

In terms of penetration, 78 percent of smartphone users accessed their browser in April 2010, while 80 percent of smartphone users accessed applications. In comparison, just 19 percent of feature phone users accessed their browser, with 17 percent accessing applications. Although smartphone users are driving growth in browser (up 111 percent in the past year) and application (up 112 percent) access, feature phone users still make up nearly half of all users accessing mobile browsers and apps.

“Although growth in application usage on smartphones continues to grab the spotlight in the mobile market, the audience using their mobile browser remains larger and is growing just as quickly,” says Mark Donovan, senior vice-president of mobile at comScore. “Brands need to remember to take into consideration the user experience across both channels when building their mobile strategies.”

The latest report from Taptu, the UK-based mobile experts, shows the growing power and importance of the mobile browser (“Touch Web”) versus apps for the iPhone and Android phones: “While iPhone sales are impressive, creating an iPhone-only app could exclude up to 90 percent of consumers, as the iPhone is only expected to account for 10 percent of all touch screen device sales in 2010.”

The Cost Factor

“The other factor organizations must consider is cost. Rolling out services across multiple OS-specific applications is not easily achieved due to a host of gatekeeper technical and commercial barriers, whereas the open Touch Web provides and easier migration of existing desktop infrastructure.

“The Touch Web, which can be accessed from any device, with open standards, is intuitively a more natural fit.”

Conclusions and Predictions from Taptu

“As touch screen phones become the norm rather than the luxury exception, we expect to see the Mobile Touch Web — or what we call the ‘second wave for touch screen devices’ — to become even more popular.

Sites Must Be Mobile Friendly

“Mobile Touch Web sites are derived from the Internet, but are sites created specifically for mobile touch screen devices, with finger-friendly layouts and lightweight pages that are fast to load over cellular networks.

Apps Are Not the Answer

“For consumers using mass-market touch devices rather than their more powerful alternatives, having this range of content that is easy to access and has been especially built for them is even more critical, especially as some of these devices do not have a clear, easy path to obtaining apps.”

The complete Taptu report, “The State of the Mobile Touch Web,” can be downloaded for free »

Kaptivate recently released a fascinating study of NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) and mobile communication and fundraising. Innovative international philanthropy veteran and CEO of Kaptivate, Ron Vassallo, describes the study like this: “We collaborated with several large non-profit associations to secure a broad and diverse participation in the sample. Significant effort was made to ensure that active users of mobile giving technology were represented. Their mobile giving experiences and best practices would prove valuable to organizations considering the mobile opportunity. The survey succeeded in capturing the input of 162 organizations.”

Research Highlights

Vassallo goes on to say, “Survey responses revealed growing interest in mobile fundraising as well as a growing likelihood that non-profits will take the plunge into mobile in the near term. A full 36% of respondents are currently using or planning to go mobile in the next 12 months. If you extend that horizon to 24 months, over 50% of respondents expect their organizations to adopt mobile fundraising.

Mobile Web Apps vs Text and Device Apps

“Mobile web applications provide the flexibility, control, affordability, and user experience that address the challenges faced by mobile Early Adopters as well as the needs of non-profits aspiring to use mobile media. There is always some risk in declaring a technology opinion but we believe the case for the mobile web is strong. First, these applications do not depend on a wireless carrier intermediary—eliminating the restrictions on an organization’s size; expediting the receipt of funds; and removing restrictions on the value or frequency of donations. Next, good mobile web apps also avoid dependencies on a specific mobile devices (i.e., Apple’s iPhone) thereby preventing another intermediary from imposing its own set of rules. Finally, the web-based technology is familiar to users and allows for multimedia communications and interaction.”

You may download the full report here »

Publicis London launched an innovative iPhone application on May 9: iHobo, to challenge perceptions surrounding homelessness. The app, the first ever to feature interactive live action video footage, was developed on behalf of homelessness charity Depaul UK.

The free iHobo application (available in UK only) downloads a virtual homeless person on to the user’s iPhone and demonstrates in real time the complexity of homelessness: lack of shelter, food and money, emotional distress, isolation, drug use, crime and physical and mental abuse. The charity is looking to attract a new generation of young, affluent donors to continue its work.

Why Depaul UK Was So Bold

Paul Marriot, CEO of Depaul UK, says: “Homeless young people are often stereotyped and looked down upon. When they sleep rough, they are highly vulnerable and face very real risks. But they are just like any other young person and, with the right support, they can be back on their feet and fulfill their undoubted potential.

“By creating this app we aim to dispel negative stereotypes of young homeless people and raise awareness of the reasons that young people become homeless and the emotions that they feel. We wanted to create an app that would stand out and make people pay attention, and make people think about how they can make a difference.”

Watch the iHobo Video on You Tube

Over three days iHobo is the iPhone user’s responsibility with every decision made – such as offering food, money or emotional support – impacting on his life. It uses Apple’s most recent Push Notification technology to send alerts to the user when iHobo needs help. Once the application cycle is complete it makes the point that homeless people are in fact not hobos and the user is invited to make a donation directly to Depaul UK. Depaul UK and Publicis are airming to start a debate around youth homelessness, government commitment, general awareness and the solutions to these problems. Based on the feedback and press they received, it is fair to say they succeeded.

By using a controversial and emotive name, they aim to encourage debate, raise awareness and start a discussion on a broad level with those that have not previously been aware of it.

Tom Ewart and Adam Kean, joint executive creative directors, Publicis London, explain their approach: “We wanted to reach that elusive generation of young, affluent donors, who tend to exist in a world defined by their mobiles. It’s been a complicated process getting live interactive footage onto an app, but doing something that’s never been done before was never going to be easy.”

Susan G. Komen For The Cure Central Oklahoma became the first chapter in the international breast cancer cause to go mobile when they launched their ur mobile site on May 6, 2010.

Since beginning the breast cancer movement 25 years ago, Susan G Komen for the Cure has transformed how the world talks about and treats breast cancer. They are helping to turn millions of breast cancer patients into breast cancer survivors.

Their new mobile site makes it possible to get important information immediately, wherever you are: leaving a doctor’s office, getting off a sobering phone call from a friend or loved one, or when you need to provide help to a friend over lunch.

And unlike other mobile efforts, this new presence allows Komen for the Cure to accept secure donations of any amount, safely and securely over a mobile device. For example, gifts of $10,000 or more are possible, as our recurring donations. These innovations will be changing the face on mobile fundraising and relationship building for nonprofits.

Be sure to visit the site on your mobile device. It’s the same address as their traditional website: www.KomenCentralOK.org

Optimizing your mobile site — not just your traditional site — brings multiple benefits says Bryson Meunier, Associate Director of Content Solutions at Resolution Media, an Omnicom Media Group Company. Writing in “Search Engine Land” (no, not the latest addition to Disneyland), Meunier makes an excellent point when he says, “As mobile search evolves and mobile ranking factors become more prevalent, brands that don’t optimize a mobile site today will be busy playing catch up tomorrow, building mobile links and paying attention to mobile ranking factors to their site. Search engines look at age of links and age of site when it comes to ranking because such factors are hard to manipulate. Success in mobile SEO will be difficult if postponed until absolutely necessary.”

Meunier also makes a strong case for a distinct mobile web presence, not just a port from your traditional website. Like Jakob Nielsen and other leading experts, he makes a good case for the importance of mobile landing pages: “Providing a mobile landing page to a mobile user makes it more likely that they will perform the desired action.” Just like in traditional web.

Read his entire 16-point article on mobile SEO »

With the successful launch of the iPad – despite some persistent critics – Apple is proving what Apple COO Timothy Cook said in February 2010: Apple is a smartphone company.

Speaking at a conference sponsored by investment bank Goldman Sachs, Cook said people should “definitely” look at Apple as a mobile-device company. “Webelieve we are uniquely positioned for success in the mobile world because we can seamlessly integrate hardware and software,” he said. Cook added that the “vast majority” of Apple’s revenue now comes from mobile-device sales or from content for those devices, and not from its Macintosh computers.

Roger Entner, Senior Vice President, Research and Insights, Telecom Practice, made the following observations on the latest Nielsen mobile research study:

“The iPhone, Blackberry, Droid and smartphones in general dominate the buzz in the mobile market, but only 21% of American wireless subscribers are using a smartphone as of the fourth quarter 2009 compared to 19% in Q3 2009 and 14% at the end of 2008. We are just at the beginning of a new wireless era where smartphones will become the standard device consumers will use to connect to  friends, the internet and the world at large. The share of smartphones as a proportion of overall device sales has increased to 29% for phone purchasers in the last six months and 45% of respondents to a Nielsen survey indicated that their next device will be a smartphone. If we combine these intentional data points with falling prices and increasing capabilities of these devices along with a explosion of applications for devices, we are seeing the beginning of a groundswell. This increase will be so rapid, that by the end of 2011, Nielsen expects more smartphones in the U.S. market than feature phones.”

Read the whole story at: http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire

Bob Evans, senior VP and director of InformationWeek’s Global CIO unit, recently declared: “The mobile future has arrived. And if you think the changes it’s causing so far have been crazy, just wait until later this year when it starts to really exert its influence. The big question: are you ready?”

After hearing Google CEO Eric Schmidt articulate why Google is so bullish on mobile computing, he compiled a top-10 list of Schmidt’s reasons that “the answer should always be ‘mobile first.’”

As you consider you’re your NGO’s mobile strategy and evaluate whether you’re putting enough muscle behind it to match the dynamics of your marketplace, take a quick read of what Schmidt shared at the day-long Atmosphere 2010 cloud event at Google headquarters.