Orange in U.K. Debuts Digital Media Index, Reveals Users’ Pick of Entertainment & Apps

By Peggy Anne Salz - Tue 15 May 2007 02:22 AM PST

The number of text messages, the number of users surfing the mobile Web and the top ten ringtones are just a few of the items covered in the Digital Media Index, released today by Orange in the U.K and outlined in this article in The Guardian. The mobile operator’s stats reveal how its 15 million users interact with their mobile devices and each other. Among the findings:

--Users send 872 million text messages a month, with most sent between 4pm and 8pm as people plan their night out; MMS use is much lower at 5.4 million
--Web use is buoyant with more than 2.1 million users accessing the Internet (but not clear if this is Internet or mobile Web – or both)
--Users downloaded almost 750,000 games in the first three months of this year, with Sonic the Hedgehog, Worms and Space Invaders (Anniversary Edition) the top three choices.

And there were some surprises. For one, the average age of a mobile games downloader is 30 - older than expected. However, this may also be because older users are usually post-paid and have the deep pockets to pay for more mobile entertainment. Younger users are generally on pre-paid plans and watch their wallets.
Wallpapers continue to be a popular item, with users downloading some 65,000 images each month (scantily clad women dominate the charts). Music is another attraction, with users downloading more than 250,000 music tracks, ringtones and videos per month (but there is no breakdown in the categories to give us a hint of the popularity of videos alone…). The Top Ten lists for video, music and games are in the article.