The news is full of stories that have to do with more consumers having a smartphone or tablet and each company is launching a smartphone every time we jump on the Web to check the news. Today, smartphone use is so high that some say more people have more than one connected device in their household and those numbers are higher than ever. A communications regulator in the United Kingdom has released a Communications Market Report that is showing smartphone use almost more common the PC usage within China, United States and European markets.
Ofcom, which is the regulator, released the annual report and in it the number showed that 46 percent of consumers in the United Kingdom are using smartphones. That is the highest penetration for smartphones in Europe, while Spain is right behind with 45 percent of consumers owning a smartphone. In Japan the numbers are more staggering with almost 93 percent of consumers using a device that is connected via 3G, which includes smartphones and high end feature phones with 3G support. The United Kingdom only showed that 48 percent of consumers had a 3G connected device, but that is mostly because many feature phones do not support the connection type.
According to the report, the smartphone penetration in the United Kingdom is up to 130 percent, meaning more people are connected with more than one device. As more smartphones become available and more are becoming more affordable, the smartphone penetration is growing very quickly. In the United Kingdom, the percentage of smartphone users doubled from Feb. 2010 to August 2011. When the numbers of smartphones in use rises that fast, the data usage numbers fly off the chart as well. Even in the five markets that were surveyed, which included the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Australia and the US, bandwidth usage was kept on the lower end. Lower end bandwidth usage is tied more to checking emails, social networking apps and some games.
Higher bandwidth numbers would be tied directly to things like video streaming from YouTube or even watching television right from your smartphone. More people are likely to be streaming video content on their smartphone is the data plan they have is unlimited. According to the report watching TV or video content is on the bottom of the “Use of selected internet/data services on mobile phones” graph.
