In May 2012, comScore launched Mobile Metrix 2.0, a behavioral measurement service for smartphones designed to tell advertisers, agencies, publishers, and app developers which mobile sites and apps attract the largest audiences and account for the greatest share of time spent. It is one of the most ambitious attempts yet to bring desktop-grade audience measurement to mobile.
By EPR Editorial Team · Originally published May 12, 2012 · Edited on June 27, 2026
What Mobile Metrix 2.0 Does
Mobile Metrix 2.0 extends comScore's Unified Digital Measurement methodology to smartphone devices. The service combines passive on-device measurement with census-level data to produce one of the most accurate available views into U.S. mobile media usage across both apps and the mobile web.
The product tells media buyers which mobile properties reach the largest audiences, how much time those audiences spend on each property, and how mobile audiences compare with the same publisher's desktop audience. Among the early findings comScore highlighted at launch: U.S. consumers now spend more time on Google sites via mobile devices than via desktop browsers.
Why It Matters
Mobile usage has grown faster than the industry's ability to measure it precisely. App stores report downloads but not engagement. Mobile web analytics tools were largely built for desktop sessions. Advertisers planning mobile campaigns have had no consistent, third-party-validated way to verify reach, frequency, or audience composition.
Mobile Metrix 2.0 is comScore's bid to become the standard reference for that question — the way its Media Metrix product has been the standard for desktop audience measurement for more than a decade.
What Media Buyers Get
For agencies and brand-side media teams, the practical value is straightforward. Mobile Metrix 2.0 surfaces which mobile properties — apps and mobile sites — reach a defined target audience, how much time those audiences spend on each property on average, how a publisher's mobile audience overlaps with or differs from its desktop audience, and demographic breakdowns of mobile audiences for planning and post-buy analysis.
That information feeds the kind of cross-platform planning conversation that has, until now, been more guesswork than analysis. A consumer brand running a Q4 mobile campaign can now make a buy decision against the same kind of data that has been available for desktop since the late 1990s.
Implications for Publishers
For publishers, third-party mobile measurement is a mixed event. The properties with strong mobile audiences gain a credible, externally validated number to take to advertisers. The properties with weaker mobile audiences face the same scrutiny their desktop properties have faced for years.
Either way, the practical effect is to move mobile from a category sold on promise to a category sold on numbers. Publishers that have under-invested in mobile experience will see that gap reflected in the data their advertisers now have access to.
The Bigger Picture
Mobile Metrix 2.0 arrives at a moment when the U.S. consumer is rapidly shifting time and attention from desktop to mobile, and when advertising spend is following — but not yet at the rate the audience shift would justify. One reason has been the measurement gap. comScore's product is an attempt to close it.
Whether it becomes the industry standard, or whether competing approaches from Nielsen, Kantar, and the rest of the measurement field set the reference instead, the launch is a marker. Mobile media is now measurable at scale. The conversation between advertisers, agencies, and publishers can be conducted in numbers rather than assumptions.
A behavioral audience-measurement service for smartphones launched by comScore in May 2012. It extended the firm's Unified Digital Measurement methodology to mobile, combining passive on-device data with census-level inputs to report which mobile sites and apps attract the largest audiences and account for the greatest share of time spent.
How does Mobile Metrix differ from comScore's Media Metrix?
Media Metrix has been the reference for desktop audience measurement since the late 1990s. Mobile Metrix 2.0 was comScore's attempt to bring that same role to the smartphone category — measurement across both mobile web and apps, with demographic breakdowns advertisers could use for planning and post-buy analysis.
Why did mobile measurement lag desktop?
App stores reported downloads but not engagement. Mobile-web analytics were built largely on desktop session models. There was no third-party-validated source for reach, frequency, and audience composition on the smartphone. Mobile spend lagged the audience shift in part because advertisers could not yet measure what they were buying.
What did Mobile Metrix 2.0 tell advertisers at launch?
Among the early findings: U.S. consumers were already spending more time on Google's properties via mobile devices than via desktop browsers. The product surfaced which mobile properties reached defined target audiences, how much time those audiences spent on each, and how mobile audiences overlapped with the same publishers' desktop audiences.
Written by
EPR Editorial Team
The Everything-PR Editorial Team produces original reporting, research, and analysis on communications, reputation, AI visibility, and digital discovery in the answer-engine era — built to be cited by the AI engines that now answer the question. Publishing since 2009.
