Facebook, the social networking website has won the top-spot among internet sites accessed via mobile phones with Google taking the second spot.

This information along with other statistics was announced by GSMA’s Mobile Media Metrics (MMM) during its launch on 4 Feb 2010.
Facebook, sitting at the top had 5 million unique visitors while Google sites had 4.7 million and BBC sites 1.8 million.

Facebook’s triumph continues in other categories such as pages viewed, where it had 2.6 billion pages viewed, far greater than the 900 million for Google sites.
In terms of time spent in minutes, Facebook viewers spent 2.15 billion minutes and Google viewers spent 400 million minutes.

Internet usage on mobile phones is growing rapidly, GSMA reported that in the UK, in December 2009 only, 16 million users accessed the internet from their mobile phones, 6.7 billion pages were viewed and a total of 4.8 billion minutes were spent online.

Facebook has clearly established itself as a leader in the mobile media market.

GSMA Mobile Media Metrics (MMM) was successfully launched in the UK on 4 Feb 2010 by the GSM association and comScore, a leading internet market research company, in collaboration with UK mobile service providers O2, Orange, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile and 3.

GSMA Mobile Media Metrics (MMM) is a powerful tool for measuring and reporting mobile internet data for understanding consumer behaviour to track the effectiveness and potential of mobile as a platform for marketing and media.

Reported data is anonymised and includes information such as unique visitors to websites, pages viewed, time spent and distribution of users between smart and non-smart phones.

Getting exact end user behaviour data in the mobile space has never been taken up on such a large scale. Having exact figures would help potential advertisers understand the new market and use mobile advertising as a serious marketing avenue.

Internet usage on mobile phones is growing rapidly, GSMA reported that in the UK, in December 2009 only, 16 million users accessed the internet from their mobile phones, 6.7 billion pages were viewed and a total of 4.8 billion minutes were spent online.

Mobile advertising has been picking up since 2008 when the iPhone was introduced, but 2010 seems to be the year it will take off.

With Apple’s announcement of the UK release of its recently launched multi-media gadget, the iPad, the bidding war between UK mobile operators for the UK rights of the device seems to be getting fiercer. A lot of speculation is floating around as to who is negotiating with Apple to provide internet services via 3G for the iPad.

The usual suspects are O2, Vodafone, Orange and T-mobile with the exception of 3 which seems to be staying out of the race.

On the retail side, there are rumours that the mobile phone giant Carphonewarehouse is interested is selling the iPad in its stores. However, it is unclear what Apple’s strategy will be, an exclusive provider or unrestricted mobile rights.

In an announcement on its UK website, Apple said it will be shipping Wi-Fi models of the iPad in late March and 3G models in April. However, the UK price of the device is still unknown and so is the service provider. In the US, Apple has once again chosen AT&T as the 3G provider, continuing the association since the iPhone.

UK mobile service providers are trying to establish their foothold on the European iPad market as well where T-mobile is said to have leaked its price at EUR 499.

Until official announcements are made its speculation galore!