Commentary

The I's Have It

by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer, September 28, 2009

According to a recentCompete Smartphone Intelligence survey, with insights into how consumers are using their iPhones and other "smart" devices, smartphone owners agree on their favorite types of applications; entertainment, games, music, social networking and weather are the most popular across platforms.

The survey data shows that smartphone owners prefer personal and social apps to business applications and are relatively open to targeted ads. iPhone owners, more so than other smartphone users, were more likely to spend money on apps., while 83% of all smartphone users preferred apps $5 or below. Key findings include:

• 73% of Blackberry owners have downloaded 5 or fewer applications; in contrast, 72% of iPhone owners have downloaded 10 or more applications

• Facebook is hot among iPhone owners: 71% of iPhone users report accessing Facebook from their mobile device, 37% listed Facebook as one of their top three most utilized apps and 18% claim it's their favorite app.

• 30% of all smartphone owners are either comfortable or very comfortable receiving targeted marketing on their device

• Despite Twitter's ever-increasing mobile popularity, 85% of smartphone owners still prefer to access the site from the computer, while 26% of iPhone users tweet from their device, only 15% of Palm owners and 10% of Blackberry devotees report accessing Twitter on the go

• Of the smartphone owners who do access Twitter via their phones, 41% use the application to keep track of what their friends are doing, 32% use the service to keep up with current events and 19% tweet from their handset to build a fan base or promote their company

• Nearly half of smartphone owners are receptive to location-based targeted ad offers at restaurants and offers to save and pursue at their leisure, and 45% would use mobile grocery coupons

Danielle Nohe, director of telecommunications and media for Compete, notes that "... the iPhone has taken an early lead in getting owners to adopt app functionality and make popular applications a part of their daily lives... once users are hooked, they're very unlikely to give up their device... "

Facebook is the most heavily trafficked social networking site among smartphone owners, says the report, and iPhone users are twice as likely to use the mobile Facebook app as their Palm counterparts. In fact, iPhone owners are the most active mobile social networkers, with the highest percentage of respondents reporting mobile use of Facebook, MySpace and Twitter and from their mobile devices.

Accounts Holders With Social Networking Websites and Accessed from Smartphone (% of Respondents)
	*Social Site*
*Smartphone Type*	*Facebook*	*MySpace*	*Classmates.com*	*Twitter*	*Linkedin*
IPhone	71%	22	4	26	5
Blackberry	44	19	3	10	4
Palm	33	17	5	15	1
Total	45	19	4	15	3
Source: Compete, September 2009

Despite Twitter's ever-increasing mobile popularity, 85% of smartphone owners still prefer to access the site from the computer:

• 26% of iPhone users tweet from their device

• 15% of Palm owners access Twitter on their smartphone

• 10% of Blackberry owners report accessing Twitter on the go

Of the smartphone owners who do access Twitter via their phones:

• 41% use the application to keep track of what their friends are doing

• 32% use the service to keep up with current events

• 19% tweet from their handset to build a fan base or promote their company

Impulse and leisure purchases tend to be offers that make the best candidates for marketers trying to reach networked consumers rather than big, highly considered ones. Nearly half of smartphone owners are receptive to location-based offers at restaurants and offers to save and pursue at their leisure, and 45% would use mobile grocery coupons.

Offers Most Interested in Receiving on Wireless Device (Ranked First or Second out of Five; % of Respondents)
*Offer Desired*	*% of Respondents*
Location based restaurant offers	46%
Offers to save or pursue later	46
Grocery coupons	45
Flight, hotel, rental car check-in with bar code	44
Special pricing for local movies	44
Location based promotion (close)	42
Discounts on travel sites	34
Offers synched to personal schedule	29
Source: Compete, September 2009

To learn more about Smartphone Intelligence please visit Compete here.

mobile, research

2 comments about " The I's Have It".

Check to receive email when comments are posted.

Howie Goldfarb from Blue Star Strategic Marketing, September 28, 2009 at 9:37 a.m.
Once again some great research but marred by omissions. Taken at face value a Brand would think there is a receptive green light to serve ads push style to people's smart phones. And I doubt that would be a correct assumption.
If you ask a person if they are receptive to certain brands or ads that is one thing. But then ask them about how the ad finds them. Are they ok with behavioral targeting based on location? twitter or facebook conversations? Do they prefer offers that they initiate or pop up automatically. If they come automatically what is the breaking point before it is an annoyance. If the ads/offers are served automatically via location based GPS what is the max number they are ok with receiving and who chooses what they are? For example if your are shopping or in an entertainment district and you are curious about restaurant offers there might be 20 to 100 in the area that all want to serve an offer to your phone. If the service only sends the top 5 bidders does that truly show you all the best offers? Would the local What To Do Paper be better maybe?
What about things like travel/airline? I have signed up for all the major carriers and travel sites via email and really on open them when it is vacation/travel time. Would a smart phone user be ok to get hit with 20 offers a day?
All these questions were not asked. I think the holy grail of mobile is for the consumer to have 1] complete control 2] complete knowledge. Meaning offers don't magically pop on their phone, yet they have full awareness of where to look for special offers either by OOH/Print that gives them a mobile website or SMS code or from past experience once they are shown the way.
Reply

Timothy Murphy from Keynote Systems Inc., September 28, 2009 at 12:43 p.m.

Not a big surprsie to see the iPhone - BlackBerry gap. RIM's domination of the Business market puts a lot of devices in the hands of people who mostly want the email.

It was interesting, but not surprising to see Twitter's low usage on smartphones. Knowing that there are such long delays on the desktop, I couldn't imagine what their mobile site is like. In our daily monitoring of both mobile sites and the Web we see that users expect fairly consistent across each. I'd guess that most people say "no thanks" without even trying the mobile app.