Staying connected 24 x7 is gradually becoming a need for the Indian consumers who are now using the mobile medium to stay connected by as much as almost the same figures for traditional web, reveals new study from Nokia in partnership with market research firm, TNS.

“People now have a social and emotional need to stay connected 24x7 with friends, information and entertainment and it’s big news for brands that mobile web users now access the internet through their device almost as frequently as they do through their PC,” said  Mr. D. Shivakumar, VP and Managing Director, Nokia India. 

The study found out that mobile web users use on an average 2.4 days per week to access internet through mobile which is almost same as that of users who use traditional web medium at 2.7 days per week. In fact the research claims that 28 % consumers find new product information through the mobile medium as compared to 26% through the traditional web medium.

As per the research, 56% of those who noticed a banner ad went on to visit the mobile site of the advertiser while as a testimony to the enhanced viral effect, 29% of those that noticed a banner ad discussed the campaign with someone else

The research reveals that mobile internet is more popular among the males, people in the 16-25 age group and consumers falling under SEC ‘A’. Users spent 121 minutes for mobile internet on their mobile devices which is next only to the time spent on making and receiving calls as well as to listen to FM Radio. Place of usage too interestingly turned out to be mainly from home.

Downloading songs, music, games, ringtones, wallpapers and themes turned out to be major applications for which mobile internet was put on use by users.

Mobile advertising is acceptable to 49 % of the users as per the study. 45 % of the users prefer sponsored content as means of mobile advertising, says the study.

The study was conducted on a sample of 3500 consumers across 15 metro and tier 1 cities.