Mobile Usage in Japan, U.S. and Europe, Compared

Analytics firm comScore has just released a new study on mobile usage and behavior in the Japanese, American and European markets. The report's findings highlighted the "significant differences" between the consumers in these markets, in terms of mobile connectivity, application usage, mobile social networking, media consumption, gender-related behavior and more.

Below is a summary of the firm's report.

Japan Leads in Connectivity, Web Surfing, Application Use

Japan was the most connected of the markets studied, with 75% of its users either browsing the Web, accessing applications or downloading content. Only 43.7% of Americans and 38.5% of Europeans could say the same.

The Japanese mobile users also led the others when it came to mobile browser usage with 59.3% accessing their browsers in June, while just 34.0% of Americans and 25.8% of Americans did so. They also led in app usage with 42.3% accessing apps, compared with 31.1% of U.S. users and 24.9% of Europeans.

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Yahoo to Offer Video Chat on Android & iPhone

Yahoo let the cat out of the bag earlier this week, when one of its executives told Reuters that it would begin offering video chat via Yahoo Messenger to both the iPhone and Android smartphones.

The move would bring Yahoo, which already has 81 million Yahoo Messenger users, again to the forefront of chat services and would pose a serious challenge to Apple's own FaceTime.

 

Apple FaceTime, a face-to-face video chat, only operates between iPhone 4 users over Wi-Fi connections. Yahoo Messenger, however, would go a significant step beyond FaceTime, offering video chat over 3G and between any capable platform.

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Adobe AIR for Android Arrives in Market

The Adobe AIR for Android runtime is now available in the Android Market, news which is sure to excite a number of Flash developers. With the new application, developers can build mobile applications for Android users without having to learn new languages. Instead, they can continue using familiar programs like Flash Builder, Flash Professional CS5 or an ActionScript development tool.

For end users, the availability of AIR means, simply put, new apps to try. Searching for "Adobe AIR" in the Market will now reveal a selection of apps that are built with AIR.

 

One downside to this news, it's "Froyo-only." For those not up to speed on the latest terminology, that means AIR is only available to Android devices running the latest version of the mobile operating system, Android version 2.2, code-named "Froyo." Unfortunately, some older phones don't have Froyo and never will, while others are still waiting. You can see if or when your Android phone is getting Froyo by checking out this handy upgrade list over on PCWorld (as of this writing, it was last updated Oct. 4th).

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BlackBerry, Windows Mobile Still Command the Enterprise, but iOS is Still Surging

Yesterday Good released its first ever quarterly report on enterprise mobile device activations. In August, we reported that the iPhone 4, released on June 24, was Good's top most activated device in by the end of July. Good's first quarterly report confirms what we reported in August - iOS remains the most activated device among Good customers. Good doesn't support BlackBerry, which according to Forrester is still the most popular enterprise smart phone OS. Here's Good's top ten:

But don't count Windows Mobile out yet. Here's Forrester's data from its Insights For CIOs: Make Mobility Standard Business Practice report:

What accounts for the differences in numbers? First, enterprises may choose to manage Windows Mobile devices entirely through Active Sync and not need to use Good's technology to manage devices - especially organizations that don't support multiple mobile OSes.

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United Arab Emirates Won't Pluck BlackBerry

Security officials of the U.A.E. first arrested and harassed BlackBerry users, then proclaimed a coming ban. They tracked and arrested one user, 18-year-old Badr Ali Saiwad Al Dhohori, who had organized a protest against rising gas prices. They used him to reach other users.

Last month, Saudi Arabia, which had also promised a ban, relented. No explanation was forthcoming then either. It seems likely that either RIM gave both countries access to the encryption keys that governed their services, or the countries realized what a titanic business backlash would result from going forward.

RIM's response to our questions was not terribly illuminating.

"RIM cannot discuss the details of confidential regulatory matters that occur in specific countries, but RIM confirms that it continues to approach lawful access matters internationally within the framework of core principles that were publicly communicated by RIM on August 12."

The August 12th statement included this assertion.

"(C)ontrary to any rumors, the security architecture is the same around the world and RIM truly has no ability to provide its customers' encryption keys."

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This Week in SMB Tech: Video Conferencing, Effective Social Media and Mobile Printing

Keeping up with every RSS feed item, tweet and emailed link is hard enough for anybody, let alone someone who's trying to run a business. That's why each Friday, ReadWriteBiz rounds up the week's most important tech news and insights for small and medium-sized businesses.

Have you ever wished you could print a business document from your mobile device? The Digital Inspiation blog had a rather handy post earlier this week outlining how you can do exactly that, using Dropbox. Very clever stuff.

On Monday, self-proclaimed social media scientist Dan Zarella published yet another insightful post showing that content published in the morning gets shared more on Facebook, although retweets on Twitter tend to peak later in the day, according to Zarella's data. Speaking of social media, GigaOm's WebWorkerDaily outlined the do's and dont's of using social networking sites in a professional capacity. They offer a specific example of how a company can screw up on Twitter, as well as some advice about who should manage your company's social media accounts and how they should conduct themselves.

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