Computers Remain Popular with Mobile Users

More than half of smartphone and tablet users still use a laptop or desktop computer to access the internet, according to a June 2011 survey from Prosper Mobile Insights. Survey results indicate about 56% of these consumers access the internet via computer, while 40% use a smartphone and only 4% use a tablet.

Mobile Service Trumps Technology

Smartphone/tablet users are more concerned with having the best service/coverage than with having the newest technology by a substantial margin. About 78% of respondents indicated service/coverage is more important to them, about 3.5 times the 22% who said they are more concerned with the newest technology.

Mobile Tech Replaces Clocks, Cameras

Six in 10 (61%) smartphone/tablet users say their mobile device has replaced their alarm clock, making the alarm clock the item most phased out in favor of a mobile device. GPS systems follow with a 52% replacement rate, meaning smartphone/tablet users are at least 17% more likely to replace their alarm clocks than any other device.

Several other devices have been replaced by 40% or more of smartphone/tablet users. These include digital cameras (44%), personal planners (42%) and landline phones (40%). Only 24% have replaced a desktop/laptop computer, and despite many predictions of the death of printed books, only about 20% have replaced books with a mobile device. Nine percent have not replaced any of the 14 surveyed items with their smartphone and/or tablet.

Comfort with Mobile Payment on Positive Side

On a scale of one to five with five indicating maximum comfort, survey results show the average smartphone/tablet user has a comfort level of 3.6 with mobile payment. This places the average level between “neutral” and “somewhat.”

Interestingly, the highest percentage of respondents selected a comfort level of 5, or “very” comfortable (34%), while only 9% selected 1 (”not at all”) and 10% selected 2″“not very”).

OPA: Tablet Users May Be Open to Ads

Slightly less than half, 46%, of advertisers queried like tablet advertising within newspapers and magazine apps, finding it to be “relevant, unique and interesting,” according to an April 2011 study conducted by the Online Publishers Association. “A Portrait of Today’s Tablet User,” on which OPA collaborated with Frank N. Magid Associates, also found that tablets are the preferred reading device for the majority of its owners compared with computers and printed media for many types of content, including weather, entertainment, news, sports and financial information.

About the Data: The Prosper Mobile Insights Mobile Survey was conducted June 22-27, 2011 among 149 tablet and smartphone users on their devices.

SOURCE: http://www.marketingcharts.com/