Hooked On Smartphones: 23 Compelling Mobile Consumer Statistics

A sur­vey from Apigee has revealed fas­ci­nat­ing insights on the extent of the influ­ence that smart­phone tech­nol­o­gy has had on U.S. and UK con­sumers.

Pat Hong By Pat Hong from Linkdex. Join the discussion » 0 comments

Mobile tech­nol­o­gy has clear been a game-chang­er for dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing. The way is has impact­ed con­sumers’ dai­ly lives has been unprece­dent­ed, and there is every rea­son to believe that the pow­er and pop­u­lar­i­ty of the chan­nel will con­tin­ue in 2015, and in years to come. What can we learn from the way con­sumers are using their smart­phones in their every­day lives?


Smart­phones are chang­ing our lives, and our brains. These days, there is an app for just about every­thing from bank­ing, to man­ag­ing exer­cise sched­ules, to book­ing a cab. But count­less oth­er apps have made a real and con­sid­er­able impact on the every­day lives of con­sumers.

A sur­vey from Apigee has revealed fas­ci­nat­ing insights on the extent of the influ­ence that smart­phone tech­nol­o­gy has had on con­sumers in the U.S. and UK. A key take­away from the 2014 Dig­i­tal Impact Sur­vey was the under­stand­ing that smart­phones now hold such con­sid­er­able sway, that con­sumers say they don’t think they would be able to live their lives as usu­al with­out their smart­phones.

It fol­lows recent neu­ro­sci­en­tif­ic research, that found dis­tinct dif­fer­ences between the brains of those who use smart­phones com­pared to those who do not. Accord­ing to researchers from the Insti­tute of Neu­roin­for­mat­ics of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Zurich: “with smart­phones — repeat­ed use sculpts the brain.”

But does the impact of smart­phone use equal addic­tion depen­den­cy?

Apigee’s sur­vey revealed some com­pelling sta­tis­tics that sug­gest there may well be some truth to the mat­ter. The results of the sur­vey, which mea­sured the respons­es of 1,000 smart­phone users in the U.S. and UK, may sur­prise you.

23 Stats Reveal How Hooked Consumers Are To Smartphones

Social Relationships

  • 92 per­cent of smart­phone users say that their mobile device has changed the way they con­nect with friends.
  • 21 per­cent of users don’t think they could main­tain a rela­tion­ship with­out a smart­phone.
  • 55 per­cent check at least one app every hour (includ­ing at the din­ner table).

Impacting Everyday Life

  • 49 per­cent say smart­phones have changed the way they date.
  • 84 per­cent say smart­phones have changed the way they shop.
  • 78 per­cent say smart­phones have changed the way they bank.
  • 70 per­cent per­cent say smart­phones have changed the way they watch tele­vi­sion.
  • 65 per­cent say smart­phones have changed the way they do their job.

Appdiction’

  • 77 per­cent have down­loaded a bank­ing app.
  • 72 per­cent have down­loaded a retail app.
  • 60 per­cent have down­loaded a diet or fit­ness app.
  • 81 per­cent agree that their smart­phone made them more pro­duc­tive.
  • 88 per­cent have a favor­able per­cep­tions of shop­ping via an app.

What Consumers Think Of Their Smartphones

  • 58 per­cent say smart­phones have even changed their health.
  • 88 per­cent of smart­phone own­ers will spend at least as much time on their devices as they did last year.
  • 30 per­cent of users expect their mobile use to increase this year.
  • And 32 per­cent plan to increase the num­ber of apps they down­load.

There Should Be An App For That’

  • 94 per­cent expect apps from their bank.
  • 92 per­cent expect apps from depart­ment stores.
  • 91 expect apps from restau­rants.
  • 90 per­cent expect apps from gro­cery stores.
  • 86 per­cent expect apps from edu­ca­tion­al insti­tutes.
  • 72 per­cent expect apps from local gov­ern­ment.
  • 49 per­cent even expect an app from their church!

Raising Consumer Expectations

Smart­phones are suc­cess­ful and pop­u­lar because they make the lives of con­sumers eas­i­er. Apps serve a spe­cif­ic pur­pose, offer the func­tion the sim­plic­i­ty that busy con­sumers yearn for, and often pro­vide the great user expe­ri­ences that pro­vide last­ing pos­i­tive influ­ence for brands and busi­ness­es.

As the report states: “Peo­ple expect a broad range of the busi­ness­es and oth­er orga­ni­za­tions with which they inter­act to pro­vide key prod­ucts and ser­vices via apps with­in the next two years.”

And the changes are here to stay. As Pablo Ken­ney, a research ana­lyst at Apigee con­cludes: “the sur­vey shows that this is not a momen­tary wave, but a true par­a­digm shift.”

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Pat Hong

Written by Pat Hong

Editor at Linkdex/Inked, Linkdex

Pat covers the SEO industry, digital marketing trends, and anything and everything around Linkdex. He also authors Linkdex's data analysis and reports, analysing the state of search in various industries.

Inked is published by Linkdex, the SEO platform of choice for professional marketers.

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