Smartphones are as important as your wallet and keys

Google has announced new research findings detailing smartphone usage in South Africa. The findings reveal that South Africans are opting for smart devices — 15% of South Africans now have smartphones. Half of the new smartphone users, though, have only been using a smartphone for the past 12 months. The survey found these users consider their smartphones to be as important as their purses and keys, with 83% of mobile subscribers not wanting to leave home without their smartphones.

Google’s findings show that people are also using their smartphones to make buying decisions. About 62% of smartphone users have used their phones to do a product search, 54% use their smartphones while shopping, and 26% of smartphone subscribers have changed their minds as a result of gathering information on their smartphones while shopping in-store.

In a similar vein, after looking up a business or service on their smartphones, 61% of people visited the business website, and 55% phoned the business.

The survey also revealed that smartphones are competing with TV: 50% of South African smartphone users watch at least a video on their smartphones every month, 49% use their smartphones while watching TV, and 35% would rather give up TV than their smartphones.

“Good data on smartphone users is hard to come by. Good data that enables companies to make data-driven decisions on how to engage with consumers on their smartphones is even harder to come by. We are now launching a new resource to address that need. Now anyone — marketer, app developer, tech geek, big or small — can answer the questions they have about smartphone users in South Africa — for free,” said, Brett St Clair, Head of Mobile at Google South Africa.

Below are some interesting facts from the study:

Devices, their Role and Usage: Important Accessory — Always and Everywhere

• BlackBerry (44%) had the highest market share, followed by Nokia (27%).
• Consumers use their smartphones primarily at home, followed by work and then on-the-go.
• Internet usage — especially browsing (56% of users) and emailing (57%) — is very important for smartphone users.
• Only every tenth user did not have cross-media usage habits: The majority of users indicated that they did something else while using their smartphones, like listening to music (62%), using the internet on another device (49%) or watching TV (49%).

Internet Activities in Detail

• The typical smartphone user accesses the web almost every day (63% mobile, 62% fixed) with several sessions on a given day — shorter sessions on mobile and longer ones on PC.
• Almost half expect to spend more time on mobile web via smartphones in the future. In contrats, they generally expect their web usage on PC to remain the same.
• Search engines are a significant part of browsing activity (61% mobile, 80% fixed). Only 12% never use local search and almost 92% mention further actions after looking up specific information, with 36% making a purchase. For the majority of users, Google is the number one search engine.
• Every second smartphone is used to watch videos, at least on a monthly base. YouTube (64% mobile, 83% fixed) is in first place followed by Facebook (62% mobile, 57% fixed).
• Around 63% of smartphone users access social networks via their smartphones every day — 35% post personal updates daily. The most visited social network is Facebook (95% mobile & fixed).

Mobile Advertising and Commerce

• About 15% of users have used a mobile coupon in a store.
• Almost 84% of users have noticed mobile advertising — mostly on search engines.
• Almost 70% have taken action after seeing a mobile ad.
• One fourth of consumers use their smartphones when shopping physically and also shop directly via the device – 47% of them within the past month. Fixed PC preference and fears that a purchase might not be secure are the main barriers to mobile commerce.
• 30% anticipate a higher purchase rate via their smartphones within the next 12 months.

This data can be accessed on The Mobile Planet website.