Smartphone ownership has almost doubled in the past 12 months with 37% of the UK population owning an iPhone, BlackBerry or Android phone, according to Ipsos MORI’s latest quarterly tech tracker.
The iPad and tablet market is still relatively young in comparison, with just 6% of the adult population owning one.Owners of both iPhones and BlackBerrys are predominantly under 35, with each type of handset accounting for 13% of the market respectively.
To compile the research, Ipsos MORI interviewed a representative sample of 1,022 people aged 15 and over in the UK during July 2011.
Despite the fact smartphones and tablets are becoming increasingly popular, an earlier survey conducted by Ipsos MORI discovered that only one fifth of UK consumers would be happy to receive commercial offers via mobile or social media channels.
One third of adults (34%) now accesses the internet via their mobile, and 72% have home broadband access, an 8% increase since the same period last year.
Checking emails is still the most popular reason people go online (73%), closely followed by people visiting personal interest sites (66%). Over half (58%) go online to find information about products they are looking to buy and 54% buy non-grocery products and services online.
One fifth of the population use the internet to download/stream music (23%) or TV (20%) and 41% use social networking sites.
Over the past year, the proportion of adults who pay for CDs has fallen by 30% and the overall number of people accessing any digital music is also decreasing. Both paid official digital downloading and legal streaming fell slightly during the last quarter.
