What is most striking and a trifle disturbing, in Time magazine’s recent Mobility poll, is that Indians are deeply, desperately connected to their smartphones. The poll was done with 4700 respondents online and 300 by phone.
At the other end of the spectrum, the US and UK might slowly be moving away, (perhaps we are pushing it) or at least acknowledging and beginning to move the mobile phone’s constant presence out of their lives.
India and Brazil, on the other hand, are slamming their chests and saying: We do everything on mobile.
Consider this:
Indians are slamming their chests and saying, ‘We do everything on mobile’: Reuters
1) 94% Indians surveyed find mobile technology helpful, this compares to 76% in the US and 78% in the UK
2) India is the largest group that says it needs new technology (57%), compared to the US and UK at 18 and 17%
3) Among the six countries surveyed – US, Brazil, China, India, South Korea and UK – India soars ahead of the others in all aspects of mobile use (50-60%) – texting, camera use, social networking – Brazil and South Korea play some catch-up but US and UK languish in the 10-20% category
4) The most telling is a least and most-used preferences for uses of the mobile phone table- calls, texting, browsing, music, search, emails, pictures, shopping, payments, video chat – in the 15 categories, India is the country where 10 of the 15 features are most used. And in 13/15 of the categories, the US and the UK star as countries that use these features the least
Sociologically too, the survey is mouth-watering. Sixty-eight percent of respondents sleep with their phones near their bed and 30% lock their phones. And again, India had the highest percentage of respondents who said, that they check their phones while doing mostly everything – watching a movie, playing with kids, during a party, eating at a restaurant or watching TV.
And then the big one, that we all know but still lo-behold, the power of a number: One-third of married Indians admitted to texting to coordinate adultery, vs one in ten Americans.
There are some interesting bits about business use. Yes, pick up this week’s Time magazine, or get the article online - it is a must-read.
