UK Smartphone Ownership has Almost Doubled since 2010, says Ofcom

UK smartphone ownership nearly doubled – from 24 per cent to 46 per cent – between February 2010 and August 2011, according to an Ofcom report. This take-up was higher than in any of the other European countries surveyed – Spain came closest, with 45 per cent, while only 32 per cent of Germans own smartphones.

Ofcom’s sixth International Communications Market report, which surveyed 17 countries, revealed that the UK also led the way with mobile internet access, with 46 per cent using their phones to go online in October 2011. UK consumers were also more likely to play games – 34 per cent compared with 16 per cent in France – and to access news content on their mobiles, at 25 per cent. 43 per cent of UK consumers with social networking site profiles, meanwhile, said they access social networking sites, again higher than any other country, and compared to just 30 per cent in the US.

While mCommerce remains a minority activity, the UK are once more leading the way, with 10.5 per cent  having visited an auction site and 9.2 per cent an online retail site using a mobile device. Ofcom notes a consistently higher penetration level for auction rather than retail sites, which they attribute to the convenience for consumers of being able to check the status of an auction, and place timely bids, wherever they are.

Ofcoms research into the cost of communications service found that UK consumers are also getting the best deal. Examining the prices of five typical ‘baskets’ of communications services found that the UK offered the lowest prices for all five baskets when services were bought individually, and four of five when bought in multi-service bundles. The price of mobile phone services in the UK were 36 per cent lower than in France, the next least expensive country, and were 10 per cent lower than a year previously.  However, prices for low-use mobile phone services such as pay-as-you-go, increased between July 2010 and July 2011 in the UK, as well as in France, Germany and Italy.