TNS: Hong Kong buys smartphones at twice the global rate

 By Nicole McCormick | May 28, 2010

Hong Kong people love their smartphones, buying them at more than twice the global level, a survey has found.

 

According to research firm TNS, almost half (48 percent) of Hong Kong owns a smartphone, compared with a global rate of 23 percent.

 

The figure compares with last year’s survey finding of 40 percent smartphone ownership in Hong Kong.

 

“Until fairly recently, smartphone or PDA phones were owned by a very specific group of consumers - mainly tech geeks and business ‘road warriors’,” said TNS director technology, Marc de Lange.

 

“But in the coming year, Hong Kong will reach an important milestone as more than half of all mobile phone owners start to carry a smartphone.”

 

Smartphone users are increasingly accessing features such as mobile internet (52 percent), Microsoft Office (28 percent), pull email (32 percent) and push email (25 percent), the survey found.

 

There is also demand for touchscreens (51 percent) and qwerty keyboards (11 percent).

 

For their next purchase, “look and feel” is the predominant deciding factor for 32 percent of Hong Kong consumers purchasing a mobile device, followed equally by brand and content and apps choice (19 percent).

 

Because of the wide range of mobile services available, when choosing a mobile phone consumers are increasingly focused on which content and applications they will be able to access, said de Lange.

 

In Hong Kong, 30 percent of mobile users regularly check and update their social networks compared to 12 percent globally, said TNS.

 

Another 24 percent do blogging on their phones, a big jump from 6 percent in 2009.

 

Facebook is the app most commonly-used by Hong Kong consumers at 17 percent, followed by Yahoo (14 percent) and Google (14 percent).

 

telecomasia.net

港人擁智能手機比率冠全球

Vincent , 27 May 2010

港 人擁智能手機比率冠全球

香港人愛用智能手機的程度原來遠超外地。 市場調查機構TNS資料顯示，本地手機用戶當中，48%正在使用智能手機，較全球的23%擁有比率，高出超過一倍。即平均每兩個人，便有一人擁有智能手 機。
該調查於今年在全球35個市場，訪問超過24,000位消費者；其中本港受訪者佔561名，當中98.4%為手機用戶。結果顯示本港擁有智能手機用 戶的比率，較去年上升8%，至48%，較全球及已發展亞洲地區的23%及27%明顯高得多。
調查又發現，本港30%手機用戶經常查閱及更新他們的社交網絡，高於全球的12%；24%的用戶會利用手機撰寫網誌，與2009年只有6%比較，增 長速度高3倍，這也反映本地使用3G流動數據服務的比率，同樣在高速發展中。
另外，本地智能手機銷情理想，其實跟趕潮流有關。被訪本地用戶中，32%重視手機的外形及手感，其次是品牌及配置應用程式，比率同為19%。這促使 智能手機的產品週期，由去年的34個月，下降至今年的31個月。
【編輯觀點】：愈來愈多人使用的智能手機，功能已儼如口袋裡的娛樂、資訊兼工作平台，帶來不少潛在商機，值得中小企多加開發。