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.
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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.
