GIGAOM
STACEY HIGGINBOTHAM
10 JULY 08
MySpace launched a social networking experience designed for the iPhone (available free at the App Store) today that will take advantage of the touch interface. As part of the launch, they sent out a fact sheet detailing some mobile stats that I found pretty compelling, notably that of MySpace’s 115 million members, up to 5 million are expected to use the mobile site by the end of the year, with 3.1 million using it now. And most of those users come through MySpace’s mobile web site rather than through an on-deck, carrier-supplied link.
This highlights two trends for mobile: One, the waning influence of carriers and the subsequent need for an on-deck application; and two, the rise of social networking on mobile phones. The first has been well established with successful applications such as Opera Mini and other downloadable web browsers, as well as the choice by many mobile application developers to deliver their services through a browser rather than a client on the phone. Carriers aren’t giving up their influence, but expect to see the more forward-thinking among them doing deals to buy apps makers, which will make their influence less obvious, but leave a revenue stream intact.