Research agency YouGov has released its predictions for 2012 on consumers’ consumption and behaviour around smartphones and other devices.
The company notes that in the UK, 40 per cent of people own smartphones, increasing to 68% within the next upgrade cycle. Smartphones’ increasing ubiquity and functionality, says YouGov, will result in increasing control and interaction with the real world, whether though smartphones, smart watches or other personal devices. Examples include interacting with TVs, tablets and even heating systems in the home, and outside of the home, with location- based marketing services, point of sale vouchers and special offers, targeted video billboards, and QR codes.
YouGov says that, for brand marketers, it’s clear that, when engaging with consumers through mobile, this is the type of interaction that provides the real opportunity – not advertising. YouGov’s research shows reveals that 86 per cent of smartphone users ignore advertising on it, while 79 per cent say that ads on their smartphones are irritating. 
YouGov also predicts that the decline of print media sales will accelerate during 2012. “Tablets and apps will increase the digital cannibalisation of paper copies as they erode more of those previously inaccessible locations to digital devices,” says Russell Feldman, associate director of technology at YouGov. “For example, nearly one quarter (24 per cent) of tablet users access the internet whilst in bed.”
Tablet usage is still small (currently only 4 per cent of the UK population own one) but YouGov notes that the number is growing, adding that, as the market develops and new entrants such as the Kindle Fire gain traction, newspaper and magazine publishers will focus more effort on specific tablet versions of their publications.
