It’s not a stretch to assume that you’ve used a smartphone in the past 24 hours. Perhaps you’ve picked it up in the last six hours. How ’bout the 60 minutes? Ten minutes? Are you reading this article on a smartphone?
According to Google Canada, as of mid-2013, 56% of adults are using a smartphone, nearly double the 33% from a year earlier.
We’re heard reports before that the smartphone is the first thing people pick up in the morning, and the last object they kiss touch before heading to sleep. In fact, according to Google’s survey, nearly half of Canadians would give up their televisions before parting with their smartphone, a huge change from years prior.
These changes are occurring because an increasing number of activities, those previously only possible on a laptop or television, are being accomplished on smartphones. With the proliferation of LTE networks, larger-screened devices like the Galaxy Note series, and the increased speed and stability of the top mobile operating systems, people are not only becoming more reliant on smartphones, but the phones themselves are becoming more reliable.
While only half of smartphone users surveyed claim to log on to social networks daily, nearly all said they access Facebook, Twitter or Instagram at least once a week. And, while 20% of users said they watched video on their smartphones daily, three quarters of them stream video at least occasionally.
The survey also touched on app usage, assessing that the average smartphone user has 30 apps on his or her device, and uses around 12 per month, with eight paid.
Curiously, only about 25% of users have performed an online transaction on a smartphone in the last year, but of those users half had purchased something on their phones in the past month, and do so around once a month.
Source: CBC
