Almost 40% of smartphone face time on non-communication services
Written by Hannu Verkasalo
Tuesday, 14 April 2009
Helsinki University of Technology
Press release
April 14, 2009
"Mobile Internet, multimedia and map applications capture already 40% of
smartphone face time"
Hannu Verkasalo says that "the usage of new smartphone applications,
including the mobile Internet, games, multimedia and map applications,
has been increasing among smartphone users and reaches already 40% of
total face time". However, most of the usage is still based on voice and
text messaging.
As many as 90% of studied smartphone users want to have computer like
functionalities in their devices, and in practice already close to 40%
of aggregate face time is based on Internet browsing, multimedia
features and other new applications instead of talking on the phone,
writing or reading text messages, or using the phonebook. Potential
usage of new applications could be even higher, however. The results
published in the dissertation, based on multi-year studies conducted in
Finland, indicate that only 31% of smartphone users, who would like to
use mobile email with their smartphones, use email in practice. For
multimedia messaging (MMS), this ratio is 70%, and for mobile Internet
browsing, it is 72%. Still, the figures indicate that there are
significant gaps between intentions and actual use.
Based on the research, Internet browsing, multimedia messaging, and
multimedia applications face the highest demand out of new smartphone
features. In contrast, wireless file sharing applications, instant
messaging and mobile Internet calls are not that attractive, when asked
from consumers.
The dissertation, named "Handset-Based Analysis of Mobile Service
Usage", is published at Helsinki University of Technology, and is the
first academic publication that is based on large consumer studies in
which the usage of mobile services is studied with device-based metrics.
The dataset used by Verkasalo is based on several surveys and in-device
usage measurements of 1 260 Finnish subscribers in annual studies of 2-3
months each.
Top 25% of users generate most of the usage
Based on the measurements, the usage of mobile services is very
concentrated. The top 25% of users generate 51% of all voice usage but
as much as 87% of Internet browsing, 100% of email and 69% of camera
usage. The most typical motive to use the new features of smartphones is
still to "kill time", instead of using applications in utilitarian or
business use. Despite the rapid diffusion of the mobile Internet,
multimedia application usage has been increasing even faster. The
research concludes also humoristic facts, for example clear peaks in
camera usage are observed on weekend nights, and on average people leave
the office on Fridays earlier than on other days.
In-device sensors facilitate next generation mobile services
In the future, smartphone sensors can be used in building adaptive user
interfaces, advertising solutions based on context and behavior,
interactive and real-time applications of social media, and services
capable of predicting future movements and actions. According to
Verkasalo, "due to the increasing processing power and more
sophisticated sensor capabilities of today's smartphones, various kinds
of next generation mobile and web applications can be built that are
context-sensitive, capable of learning from your behavior, and real-time
by nature".
The public examination and debate of the dissertation:
Hannu Verkasalo: Handset-Based Analysis of Mobile Service Usage
Friday April 17th, 2009, at 12 noon
Faculty of Electronics, Communications and Automation
Auditorium S4 at Helsinki University of Technology (Espoo, Finland)
Opponent: Professor Knud Erik Skouby (Copenhagen Institute of Technology)
Supervisor: Professor Heikki Hämmäinen (Helsinki University of Technology)
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