Today's Mobile Minute brings you coverage on India's mobile growth, smartphones in Asia, the relationship between social media and mobile phones in America, Nokia's global sales report, and the rise of open data projects in the United Kingdom.
- Reuters reports that mobile subscriptions in India are on the rise; in August alone mobile phone operators added 7.34 million new subscribers, bringing the country's total number of mobile subscriptions to 865.71 million. However, now that roughly 70% of the country's population has a mobile phone, the number of new subscribers is rising more slowly than last year as the market becomes more saturated.
- The mobile and smartphone market in the Asia-Pacific region is growing rapidly, and Cellular News has the breakdown of current and projected sales: "The smartphone market is [...] expected to have healthy growth, with 24% share in total handset shipments in 2011, up from 17% in 2010. Smartphone shipments in Asia will see a significant growth of 56% in 2011, which indicates the growing demand for smartphones in emerging Asian markets. Smartphone shipments in Asian markets will see a boost for Android-based smartphones, with market share increasing to 52% in 2011, up from 16% in 2010. As a result, the combined market share of Samsung and HTC, the leading Android-based smartphone makers in Asia, will swell from 11% in 2010 to 24% in 2011."
- Americans are taking their social networking mobile! A new report from comScore looks at the relationship between mobile devices and social media. Through mobile web browsers and apps, 72 million Americans used mobile phones for social networking in August 2011. Roughly 42 million users came to social media sites through a mobile browser, while 38 million users reported using social media apps. (via Mashable)
- Nokia reported a sales drop in their third quarter, but the drop was less than the company anticipated. The New York Times reports that, "Shares of Nokia rose more than 10 percent in Helsinki after the company reported a €68 million, or $93.1 million, loss in the third quarter, less than many analysts had expected. The result was helped by an 8 percent increase in global shipments of basic cellphones."
- The Guardian covers how public services in the U.K. are starting to embrace open data sharing in order to expand their services while keeping costs low. The report looks at open data projects across the country, from mapping projects that identify landowners, to projects for reporting neighborhood blight (potholes, graffiti, etc...), to heat maps that show popular community issues based on reports to local city councils.
[Mobile Minute Disclaimer: The Mobile Minute is a quick round-up of interesting stories that have come across our RSS and Twitter feeds to keep you informed of the rapid pace of innovation. Read them and enjoy them, but know that we have not deeply investigated these news items. For more in-depth information about the ever-growing field of mobile tech for social change, check out our blog posts, white papers and research, how-tos, and case studies.]
Image courtesy Flickr user QiFei
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