Not so long ago email seemed to be losing its edge as an useful communication tool. Spam was increasing year on year. Marketers were overusing their email subscribers database and communication tools were popping out everywhere (Social Networking Messaging, SMS, Instant Messaging tools or mobile phone calls – as voice costs were dropping). It seemed that email’s future was pretty bleak.
But than came the iPhone. When it was launched, in 2007, it came with some pretty distinctive features:
- it had a pretty great music player
- it could run apps
- it had an internet navigator
- it had mail
At the moment the only reasonable way to check emails on mobile was the Blackberry, a device designed for professional, on-the-go people. It did a pretty great job at keeping the data costs low by using its own compression system for emails but it was not very fashionable and too “business” for the mass-market.
Not long after its launch the iPhone gained momentum and its competitors “innovate-copied” its functions. In just a couple of years the market had access to mobile email.
Next came the shift in telecom’s companies strategy from voice to data. The companies realized that soon users will be less inclined to buy voice plans but they will reaaaaly love to surf the internet. So they pushed forward the data plans and these plans now came with an subsidized smartphone. Everyone wanted the latest iPhone but for those that couldn’t afford one options quickly popped up. Samsung positioned itself as the affordable yet stylish option to Apple’s products. Of course – it got sued and lost but it still reached a pretty large market share.
Ok than – affordable smartphones, affordable data plans and access to mobile mail. How did this change email activity?
36 % of all Email Opens happen on mobile.
Last year Knotice sampled through more than 800 million emails sent in the first six months. It looked at how users behave on different industries and what they found out was that email opens on mobile are increasing year on year. The email opens on mobile increased from 13% in 2010 to 36% in Q1/Q2 2012.
iOS devices lead the way. iOS based tablet and phone email opens amount for roughly 29% of all email opens, while Android devices amount for the remaining 6.3%.
Mobile email is on the rise. What are the implications?
Increase in mobile email opens shows that there are still some places where consumers can be reached. The phone is already part of the “personal space” and those that are able to interact with heavy mobile users can benefit greatly from this new found trend.
Browse the report to find out more. If you’re on the run, however, here are some key take-aways:
- iOS users are easier to reach by email
- there are actually only 2 mobile operating systems that really matter – according to the data, iOS and Android account for 99% of all email opens on mobile
- consumer services and financial services can best benefit from mobile email – these are the industries that have the highest open rate on mobile.
- data shows that there is only one tablet when it comes to reading email – the iPad. With more than 94% of all tablet opens the iPad seems to be the undisputed champion.
The revolution will not be televised, it will be mobile. We will probably be looking into email marketing for mobile with whole new eyes in a few months.
