If you’d happened to stumble upon someone using a smartphone a few years ago, chances are they would have fallen into one of the following categories: early-adopter, techie, marketer, finance/banking guy, developer, Apple fanboy. Back then, most of us were still enjoying our good ol’ RAZRs or Nokia 9800s with the infamous snake game, but that’s all changing.
You need only call your Mom, Dad, or in my case my Grandma too, or look across the couch at your daughter or son, and ask them how that iPhone, Droid or Blackberry is treating them. For those more analytically inclined, the most recent Nielsen and comScore reports peg smartphone penetration numbers perilously close to tipping over the 50% threshold.
Along with the numbers from Nielsen and comScore, InsightExpress recently released a slew of new data about the habits of mobile phone users. What is overwhelmingly clear is that smartphone owners are increasingly using their devices for a myriad of activities. Long gone are the days when mobile phone owners used their phones to simply make calls. Daily activities extend to texting, checking email, going online, checking the weather, using their favorite social network application, using apps, managing their calendar, taking pictures and streaming music.
This information won’t likely come as a big surprise for most marketers, but look further and you’ll find a few interesting trends, particularly the year over year comparisons around activities. As Kathryn Koegel points out over at AdAge, it appears the early-adopter activities such as checking in via apps such as Foursquare or the now gobbled up Gowalla, video watching, and coupon usage via a smartphone are on the decline.
Couple that insight with the recent numbers from Nielsen and comScore and it seems we are moving to a smartphone market that is largely dominated by normal folks who are using their phones for a variety of activities on a consistent, daily basis. As Koegel mentions, this is all good news for marketers as it means there are a myriad of ways to connect with users within their mobile environment. From mobile ads in their browser, branded elements within their gameplay, or through the music they are playing, brands can now more than ever begin to leverage these mobile activities to their benefit.
It also means brands need to quickly realize that a mobile consumer isn’t defined by a single demographic or persona. Smartphone users are crossing every statistical characteristic that exists. Moreover, they are landing in the hands of the average human, and this means we as marketers will have to understand their usage habits to connect within them on the go.
What do you think? Do you see more and more of your family and friends using a smartphone? Do their habits differ from yours?