Report: Mobile Email Consumption Continues To Surge With 61% Of Brand Emails Viewed On Smartphones & Tablets

A new report from email marketing provider Movable Ink revealed more brand emails are opened on mobile devices versus desktops, with 61 percent of email opens happening on a smartphone or tablet.

According to the report, iOS devices beat Androids when it comes to most popular mobile devices for reading brand emails.

Basing its research on aggregate email statistics culled from more than 100 of its enterprise B2C marketing clients spread across the retail, travel, financial, media and telecommunications industries, Movable Ink evaluated consumer engagement with brand emails by looking at the type of device used to view emails, time spent reading emails and device popularity by state.

When analyzing mobile versus desktop popularity, the study found consumers were three times more likely to use their smartphone to view brand emails versus tablets, with 45.52 percent of emails read on smartphones compared to 15.29 percent on tablets. Only 39.19 percent of emails were viewed on desktops.

Movable Ink’s numbers reflect higher mobile email open rates compared to Experian’s report on email opens  published in September. According to Experian’s data, 50 percent of email opens occurred on mobile devices compared to 46 percent that happened on desktops (23%) and webmail platforms (23%).

Both Movable Ink and Experian research showed Apple devices are in the lead when it comes to the type of mobile devices used for reading emails. According to Movable Ink’s research, consumers are 15 times more likely to open brand emails on an iPad versus an Android tablet.

Movable Ink’s study discovered more emails are read on smartphones compared to tablets, with 35.83 percent of emails opened on an iPhone and 9.42 percent on an Android phone.

Beyond researching devices used, Movable Ink also looked at the length of time a consumer spends on their mobile device reading brand emails. While more emails are read on iOS devices, the study discovered consumers with Androids take more time to view emails, with 50.55 percent of Android phone users and 43.91 percent of Android tablet users spending 15 seconds or more on each message.

Movable Ink’s research proves a Knotice report forecasting the number of commercial emails opened on mobile devices would surpass emails read on desktops by the end of this year. At the time Knotice published its report in February of this year, it claimed 41 percent of commercial emails were opened on mobile devices during the second half of 2012.

As mobile email consumption climbs, Movable Ink identified the states where smartphone usage is on the rise alongside the states where desktops remain the preferred device. At 53.11 percent, the chart below shows Texas is the leading state for email consumption via smartphones.