Kiwis embrace smartphones during 2012

Kiwis adoption of smartphones has increased dramatically during 2012, as consumers become part of the device revolution.

That is according to research group IDC, who says New Zealand's household adoption of smartphones has moved from 13% in 2011 to 44% in 2012.

But result of the ConsumerScape 360° survey, asking over 47,000 customers across 25 countries (including over 1,000 Kiwis), show New Zealand is still catching up on overall smartphone and tablet penetration and the use of ‘video on demand’.

Asked to identify the current use, purchase intentions and brand perceptions across the consumer electronics and IT segments, IDC says 68% of Kiwi respondents now access the internet using their mobile phone on a regular basis.

The result show the country now adopting more innovative technologies with smartphones, tablets and smart TVs all becoming more common household items.

"The survey captures the changing dynamics of New Zealand consumers in the home and online," says Shane Minogue, market analyst IDC.

"While low bandwidth activities remain the most popular internet activities on both smartphone and PC, we are witnessing a substitution effect between devices as there is an increased uptake of features such as navigation and social networking on smartphones and a decrease in these activities on traditional devices.

"In addition we continue to see low uptake of higher bandwidth activities on each device with streaming TV and downloading video among the most underutilised activities."

Other trends in the survey highlighted video adoption from both an international perspective as well as from the type of video viewing undertaken (e.g. Streaming/Downloading/Viewing User Generated video).

The results indicate that although New Zealand has caught up to some other countries in the adoption of video, it continues to lag behind the worldwide average.

“The study shows that the greatest catch up has been witnessed in user generated video suggesting that constraints in New Zealand of content offerings and data caps may be holding other formats [downloading and streaming video online] back," Minogue says.

"We have already seen data caps being increased by the majority of providers and a number of new content offerings enter the market, however at present more needs to be done to really motivate consumers to go online and interact with video."

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