Telephia Reports That Yahoo! Messenger is the #1 Mobile Instant Messenger Application, Both in Usage and Service Quality.
SAN FRANCISCO -- Telephia:
December Data Highlights Show Mobile Consumers Flocking to Shopping Sites, While the Overall Mobile Internet Audience Grows to More than 27 Million
Yahoo! Messenger rises to the top among mobile IM applications, according to Telephia, the leading provider of performance measurement information to the mobile industry. The Telephia Mobile Internet Report shows that nearly 7.9 million mobile users logged onto Yahoo! Messenger via their wireless device in December 2005, reaching nearly 4 percent of all wireless subscribers (see Table 1). AOL Instant Messenger secured a reach of 3.6 percent with an audience of more than 7.3 million wireless consumers, while MSN Messenger attracted an audience of nearly 4.3 million, reaching 2.1 percent. The mobile applications for Google Talk and ICQ Messenger secured an audience of nearly 1.7 million and 673,000 unique mobile visitors, respectively.
Table 1. Top Instant Messenger Applications (U.S.)
Subscriber Reach
IM Application Unique Audience (000) (%)
1. Yahoo! Messenger 7,889 3.9%
2. AOL Instant Messenger 7,324 3.6%
3. MSN Messenger 4,282 2.1%
4. Google Talk 1,666 0.8%
5. ICQ Messenger 673 0.3%
Source: Telephia Mobile Internet Report, December 2005
The Telephia Data Network and Application Testing Report (DNA) for instant messaging shows that Yahoo! Messenger also scored higher than AOL's instant messenger in overall service quality in four out of five wireless networks measured. The report includes service quality performance and usability comparisons for Yahoo! Messenger, AIM, and MSN Messenger.
Telephia's DNA performance tests further indicated that success rates for instant messaging over short codes was much higher than when using the native client-based instant messenger on the device. On average, IM activity over short codes had a three percent login failure rate. Among client-based instant messenger applications tested, two-thirds posted a login failure rate of 20 percent or greater.
"The biggest Internet brands, such as Yahoo!, AOL, MSN, and Google, are well poised to extend their reach across different channels, including the mobile world," said Kanishka Agarwal, Vice President of New Products, Telephia. "In this battle of the brands, the product that presents 24/7 uptime and a feature-rich IM experience that mimics what consumers can do on their computers will beat out the competition. Thus, benchmarking service quality from the user's experience will be a critical gauge for providers to enhance their products."
