Deloitte’s 2016 Global Mobile Consumer survey reveals that the proportion of UK smartphone users who use their phone for web-enabled activities continues to increase. For instance, 56% of users now use instant messaging at least once a week. The number is 59% for social networks, and 71% for e-mail. At the same time, the proportion of UK smartphone users who make plain old phone calls has been decreasing. In 2016, 3 in 10 smartphone users went a whole week without making one phone call on their devices. Moreover, they were slightly more likely to use their devices for e-mail, than to make voice phone calls.
Another interesting insight from the Deloitte survey is that the proportion of smartphone users who take photos with their phones, on a daily basis, has increased 145% in the last year. And while posting photos on social networks, from the phone, remains a fairly niche activity, the proportion of UK smartphone users that do so on a daily basis has increased 140% in the last year, alone. In 2016, 12% of smartphone users said that they post photos on social networks on a daily basis, up from 5% in 2015.
The proportion of smartphone users posting videos on social networks, from their phones, on a daily basis is 8% (there is no 2015 data to compare).
I wonder when we will stop referring to the devices in our pockets as ‘phones’?!
Ana Canhoto 