Olympics draw mobile Web newbies

August 14, 2008 at 7:01 am 1 comment

The Olympics seem to be striking a deep chord with first-time mobile Web users. The Star Tribune reports that according to NBC, almost half the people accessing information on the Olympics via their mobile phones are new to the mobile Web – though the absolute number of users ranging around half a million is relatively small, compared to the average primetime viewership of over 30 million. A small yet significant trend that portends the mass adoption of the mobile Web.

The number of people requesting Olympic content over their phones is still relatively small — but NBC executives say they’re stunned at how many of those never used the phones for this purpose before.

NBC Universal has been using the Olympics as something of a research lab to track the adoption of new media technology.

“To some extent, the Olympics are beginning to influence how people use new technology,” said Alan Wurtzel, research president for NBC Universal.