ABI: Smartphone Users Like Social Networks
Almost 73 percent of mobile phone users in the United States use their phones to visit social networking sites daily, sometimes more than once each day, according to an online survey of 2,000 consumers conducted in March 2011 by ABI Research.
ABI Practice Director Neil Strother said in a statement, “Users like multiple modes of social interaction. Survey respondents say the mobile phone (or smartphone) provides sufficient access to the activities they like doing with social networks: viewing content, sending media, and updating profiles. In fact, the phone is a preferred device for doing a number of activities by nearly half of those who access social networks via mobile.”
Other popular phone-based activities included:
- Checking email (80 percent)
- Checking weather and reading news (63 percent each)
- Playing music or viewing stock quotes (53 percent each)
- Checking sports scores (51 percent)
- Searching for information (48 percent)
- Playing games (39percent)
The popularity of these activities has implications for network data traffic, but also for the increased usage of downloadable apps, the delivery of more services (not just OTT/apps) and higher ARPU from data plans.
The survey is part of ABI Research’s new series of Technology Barometer Research Services.