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Is Consumer Device Preference Swinging Back Toward Desktops?

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Movable Ink Q2 U.S. Consumer Device Report

New research from Movable Ink shows smartphones account for almost 1 out of every 2 consumer brand marketing emails opened

We’re excited to release the latest edition of the U.S. Consumer Device Preference Report today! The quarterly report provides deep insight into the popularity of various devices, examines differences in consumer engagement based on the devices they use, and shows how device preferences vary across the nation. Unlike other studies, this data set exclusively includes results from large, enterprise B2C & B2B marketers.

The Q2 edition revealed the continued strength that smartphones have as the preferred device for email in America, accounting for 46% of all messages opened. However by geography, desktops rebounded and reclaimed preferred device status in eight more states this quarter, accounting for a total of 37.5% of all opens. The previous edition of the report highlighted the growth of consumer tablet use. Overall, tablets pulled back 2%, accounting for 16.5% of email opens during the quarter.

“Over the last year and a half we have seen a quick progression from desktop use to mobile dominance in email,” said Vivek Sharma, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Movable Ink. “With desktops rebounding in Q2 of 2014, it shows that marketers have to be ready for their emails to be opened anywhere, at any time, on any device. Having that type of agility in your email program will pay huge dividends during the upcoming holiday season.” Key findings include: The gap between mobile devices and desktop computers used for email closed a little bit over the quarter. In total volume, desktops gained 4% on smartphone and tablet devices, returning to similar levels from a year ago.

Apple’s iOS devices continued to widen its lead over Google’s Android devices. iOS devices accounted for 55.7% of all emails opened while Android accounted for 6.4%. However, Android users stay engaged longer with email. 53% of Android users viewed emails for 15 seconds or longer, a 13% increase over Q1 2014.

Mobile optimized email matters. Smartphone use peaks in the morning but stays dominant throughout the day. At any given point, there are more emails being opened on a smartphone than on a desktop or tablet. This puts an emphasis on mobile optimized email, and marketers should take advantage of it.

The full report is available as a free download here. If you have any questions about the report, please ask us at research@movableink.com.

About the Movable Ink U.S. Consumer Device Preference Report: Q2 2014 The U.S. Consumer Device Preference Report is based on data collected through Movable Ink’s agileEMAIL platform between April 1 – June 30, 2014. They reflect aggregate statistics across Movable Ink’s customer base, which includes more than 150 enterprise B2C & B2B marketers from the retail, travel, financial, media, and telecommunication industries. Because determining email opens requires images to load, the percentages for some devices might be over or underrepresented.

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