Consumers would be interested in a smartphone that supports writing and drawing using a pen-like stylus, concludes a survey commissioned by Samsung, who coincidentally, have such a device for sale.

The survey, which included the responses of 5,000 smartphone users across 10 nations, found strong demand from global consumers for a smartphone that allows them to write and draw with a pen-style device with the same level of ease as writing on paper. It also asked consumers about opinions on use-case scenarios where this type of device would be preferred.

Survey data was analyzed both globally and regionally, showing interesting variations in use-case preferences, including:

• If given the opportunity to replicate the experience of using pen and paper on a mobile device, 64.6% would stop carrying a pen and paper.
• Globally, 75.7% of respondents stated they would like the ability to hand-write sharable notes directly on images, maps, documents or websites using a smartphone; this figure was especially high in Asia (84.3%), leading to the assumption that the need for hand-writing may be higher for Asian-language speaking consumers due to the unique characters.

Respondents were also asked what uses they envisage for a digital device with pen-style capabilities, and responses showed that the ability to write, draw and share notes directly on a smartphone would increase work and life productivity as well as encourage creativity. Increasing organization and creating shopping/to-do lists were frequently desired smartphone tasks.

Methodology

The online survey was conducted in the USA, UK, France, Germany, Italy,Spain, China, India, Korea and Singapore, with 500 completes per country for a total of 5,000 responses.