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Canadians use cell phones to talk, barely anything else

By on August 14, 2008 at 10:05pm in Mobile News, Various News

Us Canadians – peacekeepers, caring and loyal to hockey and Tim Horton’s seem to only use our cell phones for actually talking. So 1990′s.

Senior Research Analyst,  Ramon Llamas, of global research firm IDC says “I look at a lot of Joe and Jane consumers on main street anywhere and a lot of them are pretty content with just a regular cellphone. It does what they need it to do and basically that is just to make a phone call,”

Llamas said surveys he has done have repeatedly shown that the No. 1 use for mobile phones is to make calls and not looking at photos, listen to music or read e-mails, surf the web.

Not sure when the survey was done, but we are just getting in the game when it comes to surfing the web and looking at pictures via our cell phones. With our pride and job RIM leading the trend, smartphones have become necessary to business people and affordable to consumers. The introduction of the iPhone and the joy of using touchscreens has peaked our curiosity into what a cellular devise can actually do for us – other than make calls, check e-mail… we can now surf the web (although expensive), take pictures and videos, play games.. and use the tip calculator.

Llamas goes on to inform us that the smartphone market is a minority in Canada: “They’re still going to remain in the minority mainly because these devices, basically, just aren’t for everyone”.  Tell that to Telus who’s latest tagline is “We believe in smartphones for everyone”.

“Voice and text are certainly very popular because, you know what, they’re forms of communication and that’s what people want to do.”

Interesting Canadian stats:

- Canadians also spend a big part of their time talking on cellphones 400 minutes a month, only 2nd to our friends in the USA Americans)- Canada has 20.5 million cellphone subscribers

- Canadian cellphone penetration is 63%

- After talking, texting is the next popular activity on a cellphone.  Canadians send 45.3 million text messages per day

Related posts:

  1. Quebec bans the use of cell phones while driving
  2. m.tvguide.com Brings the TVGuide.com Experience to Cell Phones
  3. What does your cellphone say about you? Even though this is a US based article the same truths are valid for us Canadians. Read the Forbes article here
  4. Yahoo today unveiled onePlace, a bookmarking tool that lets users keep track of favorite Web topics on their cell phones.

Discussion

4 comments for “Canadians use cell phones to talk, barely anything else”

  1. Not too surprising considering how unaffordable it is in Canada for the most part. It wasn't until the past month or two you could even get unlimited data for $30, and even that is too much for most people.

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    Posted by Ted Avery | August 14, 2008, 5:12 pm
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  2. I agree with this statement 100% , and if wireless carrier are going to charge for every incoming text message. it is surely not going to help. If canadian carriers adjust their prices closer to the US market i wouldn't mind using my cell phone for all of its feature.

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    Posted by Eric Thiboutot | August 15, 2008, 4:43 am
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  3. Not surprised they only use it for voice seeing as everything else is a rip off in Canada. Maybe if they wireless providers gave Canadians reasonable rates for TXT and INTERNET we would use them more?

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    Posted by Damian | August 15, 2008, 4:59 am
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  4. …”Canadians also spend a big part of their time talking on cellphones 400 minutes a month, only 2nd to our friends in the USA Americans)- Canada has 20.5 million cellphone subscribers”..

    I am curious at how do they come up with such calculations with the rip-off concept of “air time” contrary to “outgoing talking time” used in most the rest of the industrialized World.
    When someone calls me on my phone, he pays for the time and I do the same as I am charged for incoming calls. This counts double “in air time” I guess.
    Plus, I pay for a voicemail service and when I retrieve my messages, I pay for air-time again!!! Go to Western Europe and see the people’s faces when you tell them you pay to access to your voicemail or that you pay for incoming calls when in your home country.

    Did I mention the mobile “long-distance” concept in the same country!!!

    It’s simply a shame to see the state of the mobile industry in Canada.

    Have you ever wondered why you can’t buy say a non-subsidized HTC Touch form Telus and bring it to Bell when you change your operator (carrier)?

    The worse part of this industry in general and in Canada in particular, it’s a total waste of time and source of nervosity to potential customers to visit web sites of the operators looking for information on a plan. Total a…ing experience and hope the very recent change from Bell (what’s their business again?) in look and presentation of their offer will go further.

    Basically, you have people selling pipes + phones but their web sites tend to suggest everything else but pipes and phones. Compare they web sites experience from the experience you get from say 3UK or Tenmobile when looking for a plan or phone and you’ll get my point.

    Until the CRTC waked up (no more lengthy contracts lock-ups) and LTE is implemented by all 3 operators (no more supposedly technology lock-ups: compatible handsets), a big shake in this industry in Canada is still to be seen….unless Mrs Reding (EU commissioner) is appointed the head of CRTC in the meantime!

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    Posted by Eddy | August 15, 2008, 2:11 pm
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