comScore, Telefónica Germany announce results of 'Connected Europe' study

Not too long ago, consumers depended solely on their computer to connect to the internet. Today, cross-platform consumption has created a vastly different landscape as consumers use a growing number of devices to consume digital content on a daily basis." said Linda Abraham, comScore chief marketing officer. "There is a need for more inclusive marketing strategies to engage a brand's total audience."

Key findings from the white paper about European connected audiences include:

• In the EU5 (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and UK), computer usage accounted for 95.1% of all browser-based page views, with mobile devices accounting for a considerable 3.2% of all traffic.
  
• Within the 4.9% non-computer traffic, tablets generated more than 1 in 4 non-computer page views.
  
• Consumption of Mobile Media is booming. 75% of smartphone users in the EU5 used mobile media in October 2011, an increase of 62% in the past year.
  
• Apple demonstrates leadership. While Nokia's Symbian and Google's Android currently have the highest market share amongst smartphone platforms, when combining smartphones, tablets and other devices Apple's iOS holds the top spot, with a 30% share of connected devices in use.

In EU5, over 13 million smartphone users access mobile retail sites

Mobile retail is one of the fastest growing activities amongst smartphone users, with more than 13.6 million EU5 smartphone owners accessing a retail site in October 2011. Similar to other trends revealed in this study, the UK had the largest audience with 4.7 million people, but Germany accounted for the largest increase in users with a 112% growth year-over-year. Furthermore the German smartphone population showed the fastest adoption of emerging technologies, such as QR codes.

"The smartphone is revolutionising the retail business," said René Schuster, CEO at Telefónica Germany. "More and more consumers use their device as a shopping tool - to compare prices and products right in the shop. The findings from this report confirm my view that 2012 will be the year of mobile retail, placing great importance on network performance and speed of data transfer."

Download the full report "Connected Europe - How Smartphones and Tablets are Shifting Media Consumption". You can also download a graphical representation of the findings of the white paper Connected Europe