world differences in the use of mobile phones v2 20110523 documents...world differences in the use...

This work relates to a Department of the Navy Grant N62909-11-1-1032 issued by the Office of Naval Research Global (ONRG) and funded by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Material Command, Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) entitled Medical Mobile Development Project.

Authors

Jo ColleyAsi DeGaniGeoff Stead

Address for correspondence

Tribal Lincoln House, The Paddocks347 Cherry Hinton Road CambridgeCB1 8DHUnited [email protected]

Medical Mobile Development Project: D1.1

What in the world are you doing with your mobile phone? World differences in the use of mobiles December 2010

Web addresses

www.mole-project.netwww.triballabs.netwww.m-learning.org

License

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creative-commons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California, 94041, USA.

World differences in the use of mobiles - Dec 2010

page 2 of 6 Grant Number: N62909-10-1-7140

Introduction

This paper looks at the differences in mobile use across the world, and how this might reflect both cultural differences and the economic, environmental and social circumstances in which people live. There are still parts of the world in which network coverage is poor, or the per-capita income is extremely low, and clearly this affects mobile use. Within populations there may be differences, and even between different countries there may be differences in the ways in which phones are used. The impact of India’s and China’s increasing industrialization on their respective populations has resulted in an increased use of mobile technology, for example, even in those regions within these countries’ vast geographical area where mobile usage and network coverage is low.

Background “The now pervasive roll-out of 3G and 3.5G coupled with aggressive market tariffing and the new breed of smartphones and dongles has signalled the arrival of mobile broadband as the preferred method for going on line for millions of customers worldwide. Mobile broadband is now the critical revenue driver for many mobile operators and now competes effectively against many wireline offerings. Mobile broadband has taken mobile into the home and office and heralds a new era in the way we communicate.” (GSM Association Awards 2011)

“[The mobile is] an object that, in the space of a decade, has become as essential to human functioning as a pair of shoes.” (The Economist)

“I have one phone for work, one for family, one for pleasure and one for the car.” (A Middle Eastern salesman quoted in a study for Motorola)

“Regardless of culture, when people interact with personal communication technologies, they tend to standardise infrastructure and gravitate towards consistent tastes and universal features.” (James Katz from Reutgers Uni New Jersey)

“We see more differences within countries than between them.” (Kathryn Archibald from Nokia)

Almost everywhere in the world has mobile phone use at some level. 90% of the people on the planet are covered by a mobile phone network. Even in rural communities this figure is at 80%, which covers a lot of people – but not as much actual land. In 2008, the world’s uncovered areas were in: India (26%); the rest of Asia-Pacific (19%); West Asia and Middle East (16%); Latin America and Caribbean (15%); Sub-Saharan Africa (10%); Russia and Eastern Europe (6%); China (4%); and North Africa (2%). But these figures are changing rapidly.

High population coverage spans countries in all regions, but it is still the case that the most important influence on penetration is per-capita income and a high total cost of mobile ownership. Our research shows that in Africa, Asia and the Americas, there is lower penetration, with a lower percentage of the population actively using mobile phones. There is still rapid growth in mobile phone usage in these areas, driven by a combination of need (poor infrastructure) and innovative ways of paying for it (‘pay as you go’ micro-payments). “Penetration depth depends on matching tariff options to customer affordability, so long as operators are able to maintain their costs at commercially sustainable levels.”(REF)



Both geography and policies will influence operators’ total cost and ability to maintain commercially viable margins.

Research findings

Worldwide: what do people use their phones for?

Globally: SMS is still the most popular activity across the world, with 4 billion people having used SMS in

2009 Mobile web: 0.4 billion users browsed the mobile web in 2009 55 million people used m-banking in 2009 19% of all phones sold are now smartphones.

A 2010 survey of consumers around the world found that the most popular function is text messaging. Consumers had used the following functions on their mobile: sent a text (88%); taken a picture (85%); listened to music (60%); read or sent an e-mail (49%); watched a video (41%); opened a word processing document/spreadsheet (23%); updated status on a social media website (21%); accessed online banking (18%); purchased an item online (9%).

Another survey of mobile consumers across the world found that use of mobile functions was often higher in developing countries than in developed countries. For example, in the Americas region, 96%–97% of survey respondents from Mexico and Argentina said they sent/received texts at least weekly, compared to 43% of survey respondents from the U.S., and 39% of survey respondents from Canada. The only category where the U.S. and Canada scored more highly was checking sports scores. Similarly in the Asia/Pacific region, 81% of survey respondents from Australia said that they sent/received texts at least weekly, compared to 90% of respondents from India, 92% from Malaysia, and 98% from Indonesia and China.

The ITU (October 2010) estimates that 6.1 trillion messages will be sent worldwide in 2010, triple the number sent in 2007 (1.8 trillion). That means 200,000 text messages are sent every second, earning operators US$14,000 every second (if the average text costs US$0.07). The greatest number of texts are sent in the Philippines and the United States.

Portio Research (February 2010) estimates that SMS is used by four billion consumers worldwide and that worldwide SMS traffic will exceed 10 trillion in 2013.

90% of the people on the planet are

covered by a mobile network

People in developing countries have

cheaper phones, but do more with them

than those in developed countries



MMS, e-mail and IM are growing strongly. The main drivers for each are: MMS (number of camera phones); e-mail (business market); IM (youth market).

Mobile financial services

The use of mobile phones for money transactions (to buy goods and services, and to manage your financial affairs) has increased significantly over the past five years, and is set to continue growing. There are also a number of projects aimed at increasing the availability of mobile money services to people who are ‘unbanked’: for example, the GSMA Development Fund has initiated the Mobile Money for the Unbanked (MMU) programme to accelerate the availability of mobile money services to the unbanked and those living on less than US$2 per day. There are a number of issues around this initiative, which involves bringing together mobile operators in developing countries, banks, microfinance institutions, governments, development organisations and the private sector. MMU has the goal of reaching 20 million previously unbanked people with mobile financial services by 2012.

ABI Research (July 2009) predicts that 170 million mobile subscribers worldwide will make domestic person-to-person payments (i.e. transfers) in 2011 – that’s three times as many as those who will conduct traditional banking functions by mobile. This is driven by the enthusiasm for such services in developing world, often from previously ‘unbanked’ people.

Berg Insight predicts that international money transfers will be done increasingly by mobile. By 2015 3%–15% of transfers handled by agent networks today will be carried out by mobile handset (worth US$1.2–6.2 billion in revenues to the mobile industry).

Other initiatives in developing countries include those promoting the use of mobile phones to help with agricultural problems (e.g. weather forecasts) and in health by increasing access to effective health services in rural areas. Other projects address environmental issues, using greener technologies. There is also interest in addressing the gender gap in mobile usage: women continue to be underrepresented, particularly in ownership and subscription. (See future theme papers.)

Apps

Mobilthinking’s literature review (drawing on findings from Nielsen, 2010) finds that the most used apps across all smartphones in the U.S. – as opposed to downloaded – are Facebook, Google Maps, and The Weather Channel (TWC). The most popular categories are: games; news; maps; social networking; and music. On average U.S. feature-phone users have 10 apps on board and smartphones have 22 apps; iPhone users have the most with 37.



What kinds of phone do people use, and who makes them?

Worldwide, simple mobile phones (featurephones) are by far the most popular, but in developing countries it is becoming increasingly likely that people own a multi-purpose device, like a smartphone, as their lives become increasingly complex and the phone becomes essential.

Nokia leads the global market in manufacturing mobile phones, and is way ahead of other manufacturers in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe. It is also in these parts of the world that the world’s most popular operating system, Symbian, has the largest share of the market.

It seems that most mobile phone users make best use of a simple phone which they probably pay for as and when they need it, rather than having a contract. In fact, the trend is for mobile users in these poorer parts of the world to need to be able to maintain their phone

ownership even when they are paying the minimal amount. This is particularly true of women in developing countries, who may well not be the owners of the phones that they use, but which are nevertheless a vital part of their lives. Ingenious ways to top up your phone are used, including a partnership between Ezetop and Mashery and more than 120 wireless carriers worldwide.

“We have built an international top-up infrastructure by partnering with more than 120 wireless carriers worldwide and today consumers can send airtime internationally from any of our 160,000-plus retail outlets or online through ezetop.com. By partnering with Mashery, we are opening up our platform so that new partners can use our API to send airtime immediately to any of the approximately 850 million mobile telephones accessible through our system.”

Even if users from developing countries don’t want to spend huge amounts of money, they do need their phones to have practical functions. People in remote parts of the world need to be able to use banking facilities and find out about the weather, as well as stay in touch with family and friends.

These results are consistent with the Oracle survey of mobile phone users around the world (2010), which also indicated that developing regions were more likely to use their phone for a wider range of functions. In North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East,

over 95% of users will use their phone as a communication device. However, users in developing regions were more likely than users in North America and Europe to use their phone as an entertainment device and as a mini computer.

When it comes to content, the services offered via the phones and the applications installed on them are influenced by particular cultural requirements. Some service providers, such

as Nokia, pay considerable attention to local culture. For example, in India and other developing countries the firm has launched a set of services called ‘Life Tools’, which ranges from agricultural information for farmers to educational services such as language tuition. In many rich countries, by

Nokia remains the leading phone manufacturer worldwide

Phone contracts are very rare in poorer

countries, where users make micropayments to “pay as you go”



contrast, handsets come bundled with a subscription to download music. “We need to operate globally, but be relevant locally,” concludes Ms Archibald (from Nokia).

There are many factors affecting mobile usage, one of which is the available average mobile speed, which varies from region to region. Tariffs and ways to pay are also key factors: in developing countries, low tariffs and being able to stay with your operator even if you are a very light user (even below US$2 a month) are essential factors in determining how much users are able to make use of their phone. In developing countries, gender is an important factor: a significant number of women don’t own or pay for the mobile phone they use.

Relevance to the MoLE project

Clearly the mobile phone and other new technologies have had a huge impact across the globe. The ways in which this varies, and the reasons behind this, are generally economic, social and environmental. If there is network coverage at a rate the poorest people can afford, then people throughout the world will use their phones for a variety of daily tasks: in fact there seems to be an argument that in the developing countries, people use their phones for a wider variety of tasks than in the developed world. It is also important to note that, whereas the trend towards mobile internet use is growing rapidly in the developed world, this growth remains most evident in the developed world (and China) where mobile Web access is expected to overtake desktop Web access within the next five years.

The information gathered from the research process will help MoLE to assess which mobile providers best meet the needs and requirements of the project. Knowledge about the ways in which people across the globe currently use their phones, and what might be useful to them in the future, will also inform these decisions.

Conclusion

This is a period of rapid change and development in the mobile technology world. There is a vast amount of market intelligence and other information available, although this tends to be focused on the developed world, or on the larger rising markets in India and China. The Americas and Indonesia are also more closely aligned with the trends in the rest of the world, and there is a suggestion that the so-called cultural differences in mobile use will disappear as coverage increases. However, there are still areas of the world where there are barriers to usage: these tend to be the more geographically remote areas and/or those with the lowest per-capita income. They also tend to be less researched. These are also the areas where mobile technology could be used to help people improve their work, health and daily lives. Some companies are already working on this, blending altruism with commercial astuteness.

world differences in the use of mobile phones v2 20110523 documents...world differences in the use...

Documents