Accessing Directions and Mapping Via Mobile Phone Growing in Popularity
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The use of accessing directions and maps via mobile phone is rising in the United States. A market study by comScore found that 14% of mobile phone users acquired directions from their phones during the month of April. That percentage represents 33.5 million users and is a 44% increase over the previous year.
“People are increasingly turning to their mobile phone for maps and directions when on the go,” said Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president of mobile. “With summer travel season upon us, we expect even more mobile users to access both maps and location-based local search to help them navigate and find geographically relevant information.”
The use of mobile applications is outpacing accessing mapping information via the browser according to this study.
For the three month period ending April 2010, 26 percent of smartphone users accessed maps via applications, while 19 percent accessed maps via browser in a month. In comparison, just 2 percent of feature phone users accessed maps via applications, with 4 percent doing so via browser. Smartphone users drove growth in both application and browser map usage with app access nearly tripling to 12.7 million smartphone users, while browser map access surged 93 percent to nearly 9 million smartphone users. The number of mobile map app users first surpassed mobile map browser users in February 2010.
More at: Apps for Maps: Smartphones Drive Gains in U.S. Mobile Navigation
Tags: cell phones, driving directions, lbs, Maps and Cartography, mobile phones, Online Mapping