As a specialist digital marketing agency we send out emails every month for our clients. Along with measuring the standard statistics such as open rates and click through we pay particular attention to what email client (e.g Hotmail, Gmail) our emails are being opened in. Each email client renders a HTML email in a different fashion and therefore it is important for us to understand where emails are being opened so we can make sure the design renders correctly in each one. However, there is one more important reason we pay attention to this stat. We want to see how the open rate on mobile devices increases over time. And it has come as no surprise that the number of opens on iOS devices (iPhones, iPad and iTouch) have more than doubled since the beginning of 2012.
Percentage of emails opened in each email client
The % of emails opened in iOS on the other hand has more than doubled in the same time period. In January 2012 the average number of emails opened in iOS was 10.1%. 8.3% of these opens can be attributed to iPhone opens, 1.7% to iPad opens and 0.1% to iPod Touch opens. As of this August, the total number of opens on iOS devices had risen to 20.9%.
| iOS Device | January 2012 | May 2012 | August 2012 |
| iPhone | 8.3% | 12.1% | 12.9% |
| iPad | 1.7% | 5.7% | 7.9% |
| iTouch | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.1% |
| Total | 10.1% | 17.9% | 20.9% |
Predicted trend for 2013
We expect as we go further into 2013 the number of emails opened on mobile to increase further, but not as much as the trend above suggests. We expect the rate at which Outlook opens are falling and iOS devices open rates are rising to slow and reach a plateau at 54% and 28% respectively.
What we are seeing is that more and more of our clients are adopting mobile strategies in terms of their email and websites. We can only recommend this behavior as the late majority of the population pick up their smart phones and start browsing the web and opening emails on their mobile devices. Emails and websites opened on mobiles without a responsive design are seeing very poor click-through rates so if this is something your business has not addressed yet, now looks the perfect time to take action!