Half of Britain now owns a smartphone Almost half of the UK population now owns a smartphone, and Google's OS, Android, is leading the race. According to research from market watcher Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, smartphone sales are on the rise. App-friendly handsets now make up 69.1 per cent of all mobile phone purchases, it said. And 43.8 per cent of Britons own …
"And 43.8 per cent of Britons own one"
Is that strictly true? Does the research actually show how many individual people have (and use) at least one smartphone?
Or is it based on the number of smartphones in use? If it's the latter then that 43.8 percent will be out by a fair bit, I know plenty of people who have more than one smartphone.
Or is it based on the number of phones sold? Most smartphone owners I know go through at least one a year and the old ones are all in the back of a drawer.
The figures might be skewered by not including the new Apple i4anda bit phone, which will no doubt sell by the shed load, but how many of those buying a one will be new customers. Would be an interesting metric to see what proportion are repeat sales. People trading earlier iPhones for this weeks model.
"The figures are somewhat skewed, though, as data is based on a period that ended two days prior to Apple's iPhone 4S launch, which has undoubtedly boosted the company's position after it shipped record amounts of the latest iPhone."
I dont think they are going to be that skewed, most people (in fact everyone I know) who got a iPhone 4S were already using an iPhone so were just upgrading rather than moving from another device to the iPhone
"Almost half of the UK population now owns a smartphone"
Oh really?
There are some 61,838,154 of us. In February there were predictions of smartphone sales of 11.5million per year. Assuming each phone lasts the 2 years of the contract, that is around 23 million. It's still a lot, but it is well shy of half.
I suppose there might be some hand-downs and other older phones, and if the definition of smartphones get stretched enough it could be nearly true. But there are 8 adults in my immediate family, and one smartphone among us, out of 6 total phones. Taking the next generation I reckon 12 phones out of 14 people, 1 iphone and 2 more that can post pictures to facebook but nothing much cleverer. I'm not at all convinced by this "statistic".
First off, assuming one phone = one person is a mistake. UK mobile penetration is greater than 100%, so what brand of phone do these "imaginary" people use?
Then, using an instantaneous measure (market share) to divide up a cumulative one (installed base) is also incorrect.
I do wish Statistics was better taught in schools. And it really should be on more Journalism courses. Politicians and PR people, however, know more about stats than they'll ever let on...
yes i have ordered my own android phone myself as they are more affordable than apples so i cant wait it will run gingerbread 2.3.4 or 2.3 which ever version is on it. its nice to see android dominating as i have been so sick of apple getten the attention. and get this apple only allowed the voice reconition program siri on the 4s but wont put it on the iphone 4 so to get it you have to buy a whole new phone rip off tipical apple.
"Almost half of the UK population now owns a smartphone"
Owns maybe - but one persons usage is quite different to another - people 'get' smartphones as they look better than old style phones - even if they end up using them for the same 'simple' uses - i.e. making calls and sending texts.
Would also be more interesting to see the split by 'value'.
I'm pretty sure most people who get iPhones actually do buy music, media and apps from Apple (greatly increasing their value) whereas I'm also pretty sure a lot of cheap(er) Android / other smartphone owners buy little / nothing.
"The Guardian's interpretation of the same Kantar data now reads "half the people owning a mobile phone in the UK have a smartphone." which is far more believable, and might well be close to true."
Depends what you call a smartphone - some people regard some older Nokia Sxx based models as being smartphones on the basis that you can 'just about' get email or simple games on them - not really my idea of a current / modern iPhone / Android phones capability.
"but wont put it on the iphone 4 so to get it you have to buy a whole new phone rip off tipical [sic] apple."
Yeah buy your Android only to find out (as I did) that it would only run the one version of Android = no upgrade = security issues. At least the 3GS I just upgraded to a 4S still is supported / able to run iOS 5 (despite being over 3 years old). So the iPhone 3GS is still in use - the Android handset it sitting in a drawer.
There is nothing wrong with some of the Nokia S60 boxes abilities to handle email. Try running a E72 for a while. If you want text and email capabilities they are handled just fine and you'll get battery life that most newer smart phones can only dream about. Not so good when you want to catch on watching IPlayer though as my GalaxySII. Mind Nokia gave me the E72 because there were too many bugs in the E71s firmware.
In oh so many ways a better phone, even if rather less smart.
Hardly surprising. If one is replacing a defunct mobile wouldn't one try (assuming sufficient reddies) one of them there new fangled "smart" phones: only to realise it has loads of stuff you won't use much if at all, and you should have stuck with an old reliable model tha performs the tasks you need simply, is relatively easy to use, and considerably less frustrating ?
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"Everyone I know who went out and bought a 4s (5 people) all traded up from older iPhones. If you extrapolate that number up, then the launch of the 4s won't have affected apple's share of the market at all!"
Except all the people I know who changed from a iPhone 3GS or 4 to a 4S passed their hold handsets on to other people who are now using iPhones - so if THAT is extrapolated then the market share will have been affected.
Bit odd (fishy?) to do a study with sales up to 2 days before a major release by Apple.
The other half of sales, or is it people? Hard to see real figures there.
Anyway same as npo4 I am quite happy with a Sony Ericsson normal phone, calls and texts suit me fine. Smartphone that needs changing every day or other day doesn't seem that smart....
Quite a lot of those phones won't be using more than the basic features so figures largely void.
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