Photo by: Duane Daws
A new report has revealed that nine out of ten of more than 5 000 “desktop Internet users” surveyed from May to June accessed the Internet through their smartphones.
The August edition of the South African Mobile Report, undertaken by digital audience, brand and advertising measurement company Effective Measure, showed that, while instant messaging, emailing and social media remained the most common activities, 21% of those surveyed conducted banking and finance-related purchases using their smartphones.
The survey, which aimed to obtain insights into South African consumers’ use of smartphones to access the Web, showed that 91% of the Internet-using respondents owned a smartphone, with over 60% stating that they had a monthly contract with a mobile operator.
While 65.7% of the users interviewed had, at the very least, some form of a data plan subscription with their operator, 34% claimed to use the Internet only when free Wi-Fi was available.
More than half of the smartphone users surveyed had access to more than 1 GB of data a month on their phones.
Meanwhile, the responses of those surveyed revealed that Vodacom remained a leader in the smartphone market, despite registering a slight market-share decline since March.
Vodacom held 51.9% of the smartphone market share, while MTN, Cell C and Telkom Mobile followed with 30.2%, 13.6% and 3.1% respectively.
Just over 35% of the respondents had their devices for one to three years, while another 35% kept the phone for less than a year.
Twenty-three per cent of the users interviewed planned to replace their handset in less than six months, while 31% would find a replacement after a year.