- proportion of devices currently subscribed to a data plan;
- time spent online / number of pageviews per device;
- for businesses who don't plan to be profitable in the next couple of months, what OSes will be actually used for mobile web surfing in the future;
- which users have been trained by an AppStore-like system to easily spend money online.
Nobody in his right mind tries to surf with Windows Mobile if they can avoid it; the vast majority of Nokia or Sony-Ericcson phones, those which constitute the bulk of their sales, are barely usable surfing platforms, and are generally not sold with unlimited data plan; Spending money on Palm support supposes that you bet on their middle-term survival, a bet not everyone is willing to make; RIM is totally specialized into the corporate market, and is relevant if and only if you target this audience.
I agree right up to the comment about RIM: if you look at their recent efforts they are clearly holding their own in the teenage / budget smartphone market for families that want the email/txt capabilities of iPhones at a lower price point (or don't want to be on ATT.) I don't think RIM does a great job of serving this market but their price point is still well below Apple's and they're on more networks, and hopefully they will eventually get their act together in the browser area (although that will not help all the old units they have out there.)
- proportion of devices currently subscribed to a data plan;
- time spent online / number of pageviews per device;
- for businesses who don't plan to be profitable in the next couple of months, what OSes will be actually used for mobile web surfing in the future;
- which users have been trained by an AppStore-like system to easily spend money online.
Nobody in his right mind tries to surf with Windows Mobile if they can avoid it; the vast majority of Nokia or Sony-Ericcson phones, those which constitute the bulk of their sales, are barely usable surfing platforms, and are generally not sold with unlimited data plan; Spending money on Palm support supposes that you bet on their middle-term survival, a bet not everyone is willing to make; RIM is totally specialized into the corporate market, and is relevant if and only if you target this audience.