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More Canadians use phablets than medium-sized phones, according to report

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Canada has seen a steep increase in the adoption of devices with 5-inch displays and larger, commonly known as phablets, according to a State of Mobile report from Yahoo’s Flurry Analytics.

The analytics firm found that in 2016, 49 percent of Canadians used phablets while 38 percent used medium-sized phones (smartphones with under 5-inch displays, such as the iPhone SE). This is almost a complete reversal from 2015, when 56 percent of Canadians used medium-sized phones and a mere 23 percent used phablets.

phablet use canada graph

Though many might disagree with categorizing a device with a display between 5-inches and 5.4-inches as a phablet, the data still reveals much about the speed with which the mobile industry is adopting a larger format for devices and how quickly users are jumping on board the trend. Flurry predicts that “the phablet share will continue to eat away at medium phones [and] completely eliminate small phones.”

Flurry is an iOS and Android tool used by developers installed on over 14,500 apps across 38.6 million devices in Canada (more than the country’s population) and 940,000 applications across 2.1 billion devices globally. In comparing our country to the rest of the world, Flurry identified another interesting fact: Canada is 12 months behind on most global usage trends.

Among those trends is a growth in overall app usage by 74 percent, a staggering increase of 172 percent for sports-related apps (probably linked to the Blue Jay’s and Raptor’s excellent seasons) and a 98 percent increase for messaging and social apps.

canada app usage growth by category graph

The report also reveals that user-created content on the above-mentioned messaging and social apps are “eating the lunch of legacy media, and of many pure digital publishers,” with a global increase of 44 percent for time spent in-app.

Mobile game usage dropped by three percent in Canada, compared to four percent globally, with one reason being user habits, according to Flurry. “Rather than play through obstacles, users are just paying their way through games,” states the report, adding that the behaviour accounts for strong increase in gaming revenues reported by Apple’s app store.

Another aspect of the decline is the lack of long-lived mobile hits. While Pokemon Go was extremely popular for a short moment in time, its popularity died down relatively soon after its launch.

Some cities in Canada remain stronger footholds for the mobile gaming industry than others, however. Flurry’s findings showed that Torontonians and Montrealers use productivity and utility apps more than mobile games, while Vancouverites are much more frequent gamers and Calgarians are nearly split between the two categories.

games versus productivity apps per canadian city graph

For more insights, check out the full report source link below.

Source: Yahoo

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