With 2009 being undoubtedly the year of the mobile app, the search is on to find which technology will become mainstream in 2010.

One such technology is Mobile Widgets and a recent report from ARCchart takes a detailed look into the business case for Mobile Widgets from both a publisher and a mobile operator perspective.

First a definition: A mobile widget is a small portable application that works outside of the browser and provides easy access to the mobile Internet. They provide a narrow range of functionalities within a single context.

The advantage of widgets is that users can place them where it is convenient – for example of their home screen – thus allowing for easy access to the specific internet content without having to browse to a website.

The report includes a case study of a North American mobile operator who implemented a mobile widget strategy. The case study provides observations and quantifiable benefits from a real world deployment.

The consumer uptake of the widget platform was high, with 25% of the mobile operator’s subscriber base having used the widget platform within its first 9 month. The operator is predicting that this would rise to 50% within two years of launch.

The operator saw significant increases across a number of KPI’s thanks to their Widget strategy, including:

• 8-12% increase in revenue generating downloads
• 10% increase in subscription services
• 15-20% increases in mobile internet services
• 5-10% decrease in churn
• 5% reduction in customer care costs

The case study also reports good results for the developers and publishers, with partners site Mocospace seeing a 50-75% increase in registration and usage from users with the Mocospace widget on their phones.

According to Justin Siegel, CEO of Mocospace, “Our mobile widget has made it much easier for new users to find Mocospace on the mobile web and sign up.”

Mobile Widgets