comScore has launched its syndicated mobile measurement service, comScore MobiLens, in Canada. MobiLens offers insights into mobile consumers’ demographics, behaviour, device attributes and capabilities. Canada marks the eighth individual market now reported in MobiLens, along with the UK, US, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Japan.
“We are excited to bring MobiLens to market in Canada in order to deliver a mobile measurement solution to this growing industry,” says comScore vice president, Bryan Segal. “MobiLens provides valuable and actionable reporting capabilities, essential for establishing mobile as a legitimate advertising medium. Advertisers, publishers, advertising agencies, and mobile carriers alike can now gain visibility into Canada’s mobile audience and optimize their sales and marketing strategies for this rapidly developing market.”
Initial stats from the MobiLens service in Canada reveal that in March 2011, 40.6 per cent of mobile users in Canada used an application on their mobile device, while 32.7 per cent used a mobile browser. Accessing of news/information was conducted by 35.2 per cent of the mobile audience, while social networking sites or blogs were used by 25.4 per cent. Sending text messages and taking photos with their phone were the top two activities, used by 64.5 per cent and 48.9 per cent, respectively. Accessing work or personal email represented 29.7 per cent of the total mobile audience. 
During the month, Canada’s smartphone penetration reached 32.8 per cent, marginally higher than that of the US, with 6.6m people in Canada owning a smartphone. The UK led all reportable markets in smartphone penetration at 40.8 per cent, followed by Spain (40.2 per cent) and Italy (38.3 per cent). Japan’s smartphone penetration is surprisingly low at just 9.7 per cent, according to the comScore figures. (In October 2010, GfK Japan clocked it at 16 per cent, but even this is well short of European penetration figures).
RIM was the leading mobile smartphone operating system with 42.0 per cent share of Canadian smartphone subscribers. Apple ranked second with 31 per cent share, followed by Google with 12.2 per cent, Symbian with 6.4 per cent share and Microsoft with 5.1 per cent.
