Commentary

Email: King Of The Smartphone

Several design changes will likely transform the iOS user experience when the iPhone 7 is released in the fall, but email will continue to dominate smartphone use.

A design leak Tuesday revealed a sleeker Apple smartphone with antenna bands across the back removed and the addition of a flush rear camera, per MacRumors. This comes in addition to the questionable removal of the headphone jack, whichForbes all but confirmed this month.

Although a headphone-less iPhone will likely cause repercussions for those who have not upgraded to wireless audio, the design change will not actually have a strong effect on the average daily use of a smartphone. That’s because email is actually the most popular mobile activity, according to new research released Wednesday from marketing company Fluent, LLC.

Email marketers, however, might want to consider steering clear of integrating audio into their emails for the time being.

In its second annual Devices and Demographics report, IDI company Fluent surveyed over 5,000 consumers and revealed that email outranks any other mobile app or function. Among respondents, 25.5% said email is the most popular activity on their phone, followed by social media with 19.8% of respondents and gaming with 19.1% of respondents. 

Women are slightly more likely to use email, with 26.4% of women responding that they use their smartphones most for email while only 24.5% of men ranked email as their most popular mobile use. Women are also more likely to use their phones for social media, but men are more likely to use their phones for gaming.

Interestingly, email and social media use seems to be directly proportional to age. Smartphone users ages 55 or older are most likely to email (34.5%) and least likely to use social media (11.5%), while smartphone users ages 18-24 are the exact opposite. 19% of respondents ages 18-24 most often use email, while 28.4% of respondents ages 18-24 are more likely to use social media.  

This column was previously published in Email Marketing Daily on February 3, 2016.

1 comment about "Email: King Of The Smartphone".
Check to receive email when comments are posted.
  1. David Gerbino from @dmgerbino consulting, February 4, 2016 at 3:05 p.m.

    As a follow-up to this research, I would like to know the breakdown of work vs non-work emails and other segments. When email is combined with social media, there is an opportunity to extend engagement between consumers and brands on smartphones.

Next story loading loading..