SMARTPHONE users in the Philippines, United States and Mexico spent more than 32 percent of their time on their devices accessing utility features, a new report by Informate Mobile Intelligence Pvt. Ltd. (IMI) revealed.
The report by the Seattle, Washington-based firm also bared that among a dozen countries, users in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brazil spent more than 30 percent accessing chat and voice over Internet protocol (VoIP).
“Smartphone users around the world are increasing the frequency of their communications with each other but, most of the time, it’s not in the form of a phone call,” a statement by the privately held mobile measurement firm said.
“Our data reveals that most Americans love texting and would rather send a text than make a call,” Informate CEO Will Hodgman was quoted in the statement as saying.
Indeed, based on Informate’s report, engagement on chat and VoIP apps is highest in Thailand with users spending around 1 1/4 hours on these apps per day.
The US and the Philippines have the lowest time spent on chat and VoIP apps and have the highest time spent on messaging.
Smartphone users from the US spend 30 minutes per day on messaging. Countries other than the US and the Philippines spend five minutes or less on messaging per day.
The US and the Philippines also top the list in terms of total short message service sent and received per day: 17 and 18, respectively. Both users in the US and the Philippines send on the average 15 messages a day via the SMS, or texting, feature.
According to Informate, which tracks and measures consumer use of smartphones in 12 countries every month, users in the Philippines spend an average 18 minutes a day for SMS, the second highest after the US compared to India and the three other Southeast Asian countries included in the study.
Users in the Philippines in the number of hours spent per day on their device at 2.7 hours, just above Indonesia (2.6 hours). The highest number of hours spent on smartphones among the 12 countries is recorded by Informate as those in the US at 4.9 hours. Users who spend the least number of hours on their devices at 1.8 hours are in Brazil and Argentina.
Users in the Philippines manage the second lowest number of calls a day—3, with those polled saying they receive two calls on the average and dial from their device once a day. Users polled in India manage the highest number of calls at 11—six incoming calls and five outgoing calls.
Combining with the data on engagement on calls on smartphones, users in the Philippines spend an average of 15 minutes a day for calls. On the other hand, India users spend an average of 209 minutes (about three hours and 29 minutes) a day for calls. Thais, to note, spend an average of 84 minutes (an hour and 24 minutes) a day for calls.
Users in the Philippines spend six minutes a day for calls, with three minutes a day each for incoming and outgoing calls. Users in the US spend the highest time spent on calls at 21 minutes a day: 10 minutes for incoming and 11 minutes a day for outgoing calls.
“In many Asia Pacific and Latin American countries, the data reveals a strong preference for chat apps like WhatsApp Messenger and Facebook Messenger,” Hodgman said.
The average Filipino makes or answers three phone calls per day, sends and receives 33 texts and spends 14 minutes on chat and VoIP. Except for the phone calls a day, the average Filipino is like the average American.
American makes or answers six phone calls per day, sends and receives 32 texts and spends 14 minutes on chat/VoIP.
“Our report finds that smartphone users in the US are spending about 26 minutes a day texting. In 75 percent of the other countries we measured, it’s less than five minutes,” Hodgman said.
The report reveals the US as having the highest average rate of monthly data consumption at 19 gigabytes across cellular and wireless-fidelity (Wi-Fi). India’s average consumption measured the lowest at 4GB per month.
The Philippines and Argentina have the same average rate of monthly data connection at 7GB (Wi-Fi at 87 percent and cellular at 13 percent).
The report also found that Indonesia had the highest share of cellular-data traffic at 54 percent (and lowest Wi-Fi at 46 percent) and that Mexico and Brazil had the lowest cellular data traffic at 7 percent (93-percent Wi-Fi).
Only 2 percent of users polled in the Philippines said they use mobile payments apps compared with 9 percent for shopping, the highest reach among the country’s users. Banking, financial services and insurance apps had the second-highest reach at 8 percent, while mobile coupons the 3rd at 5 percent.
Search is the apps with the highest reach in the Philippines at 72 percent—same as Thailand. The second highest is weather-utility apps at 15 percent, news and health at each both 10 percent and travel the least at 6 percent.
Media-player apps reach the highest percentage in the Philippines at 82 percent, followed by video (65 percent), radio (17 percent) and eBooks (15 percent). Sports and TV apps have the least reach at eight percent and seven percent, respectively.
Informate said its International Smartphone Mobility Report provides marketers, telecoms, original equipment manufacturers and developers “with an unparalleled look at how consumers are using their smartphones” in growing global markets including the US, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Thailand, Turkey and Qatar.