Canada

Smartphones became the mobile device of choice in Canada in 2012. Feature phones accounted for over half of the mobile phones in the hands of users in December 2011, while by December 2012, smartphones had moved out front by a wide margin, with 62% of mobile phone users on the devices, compared with 38% on feature phones, according to comScore.

That is about 10 percentage points above eMarketer's estimate of smartphone penetration in Canada, predicted to have reached 46% of mobile phone users in 2012.

Overall, comScore found that total mobile subscribers rose by 10 percentage points in the country, while smartphone subscriptions rose by 17 percentage points.

The highest concentration of mobile phone users was in the Ontario region, accounting for 41% of the market. Mobile phone use was also concentrated among adults. Teenagers between the ages of 13 to 17 accounted for only 7% of mobile phone users.

As mobile users take up smartphones, Google is taking the lead as the operating system of choice, reaching 40% of users last year, compared with Apple's 35%. BlackBerry remains a market player as well, with RIM still operating on 20% of smartphone devices.

comScore also found that smartphone users were more likely than feature phone subscribers to own other connected devices. The smartphone acts as a kind of gateway to mobile internet use. As a result, smartphones will drive some of the biggest changes in internet activity.

Internet-enabled mobile activities like looking up weather, accessing bank accounts and getting entertainment news all became more popular among smartphones users in Canada between 2011 and 2012, as more subscribers grew comfortable relying on the mobile internet. The activities that made some of the biggest leaps on the smartphone were online retail and performing general searches on the devices.

As smartphones become more dominant in the mobile device market, they will begin to shape overall internet trends, accounting for more online traffic and changing the ways that users interact with the web. (eMarketer, March 2013)

The Canadian population is nearing the tipping point of becoming a Smartphone majority. 47% of Canadians now report using a Smartphone, a significant increase over 2012, when 34% of Canadians reported using such a device, according to findings in Ipsos Reid's wave of Mobil-ology, a syndicated study of the mobile market in Canada.

Tablet device use has also jumped with 21% of Canadians reporting use of these devices, an increase from just 10% a year ago.

These findings are based on the fifth wave of research of Ipsos Reid's Mobil-ology study, conducted in January 2013 among approximately n=40,000 adult residents of Canada via the Ipsos Opinions Online Panel, one of Ipsos Reid's national online panels. (Ipsos, February 2013)

While mobile internet usage in Canada lags behind that in the US, 32% of Canada's population will have the ability to access the web on a smart device by year's end, according to estimates by eMarketer.

For its August 2012 "Innovation Report 2012 Trend Watch" report, Canadian telecommunications firm Rogers in July 2012 surveyed residents ages 18 to 24 and the parents of those in that group to get a sense of how the two generations were using mobile technology.

Rogers found that respondents were less likely to use web capabilities on smart devices compared to those on a PC. While 94% of computer owners used their device to browse the web, only 67% of smart device owners went online using their tablet or phone. The story was similar for social network use, with 77% of those polled connecting to networks on a PC, and 61% using their smartphone or tablet for the same purpose. The gap was widest for online shopping, with 70% of respondents using PCs and only 12% using a smart device to conduct commerce.

Smartphone/tablet activities of young adult and parent smartphone or tablet owners in Canada, July 2012 (% of respondents):
- Text messaging: 88%
- Voice call: 70%
- Download and use apps: 68%
- Surf the net: 67%
- Connect to social networks: 61%
- Play games: 60%
- Listen to music: 57%
- Voice and video calling: 34%
- Banking: 33%
- Reading books/magazines: 25%
- Watch TV and movies: 16%
- Ecommerce/purchasing: 12%
- Watch sports: 3%
- None of the above: 1%

eMarketer estimates there will be 10.5 million smartphone users in Canada by the end of 2012, with that figure growing to 16.4 million by 2016.  (eMarketer, September 2012)

The frequency at which Canadians are using their smartphones, tablets and eReaders remains stable, but the average duration of time they report using them has declined, according to the spring 2012 wave of Ipsos Reid's Mobil-ology, a study of the mobile market in Canada.

Wave 3 of the study, conducted in March/April 2012, shows that device usage has stabilized over time. On average, Canadians report using their Smartphones 222 times per month, Tablets 115 times per month, and eReaders 38 times per month. But the time spent on each device has declined.

On a typical weekday, Canadians in spring 2012 reported spending 2.8 hours per day on their Smartphone, down significantly from the 3.3 hours they reported in spring 2011, Wave 1 of the Mobil-ology study. Significant drops were also reported for hours spent on Tablets (2.4 hours down from 3.2 hours) and eReaders (1.8 hours down from 2.1 hours) over the same period.

Along a similar vein, declines are also noted in the frequency at which Smartphone and Tablet users download new Apps and delete old Apps previously loaded on their devices.  (Ipsos, August 2012)

59% of respondents used their device to source maps and directions in April 2012, while 52% used it to access social networks, according to the survey conducted by market research agency Vision Critical, among Canadian internet users who owned a smartphone. But these rates still lagged behind PC usage, which were at 86% for maps and directions and 80% for connecting to social networks.

The figure reaches 18% via tablet for sourcing maps and directions, and 20% to connect to social networks. (eMarketer, May 2012)

Smartphones will continue to grow in popularity worldwide, and Canada, which will pass 10 million smartphone users this year, is no exception, according to eMarketer.

In March 2012, eMarketer forecast that Canada will rival the US in smartphone users as a percentage of mobile phone users in 2012, at 46% vs. 47.7%, respectively. When it comes to total users, however, the numbers are a bit more lopsided: Canada, a much smaller country by total population, will have 10.5 million smartphone users in 2012, compared to 115.8 million in the US.

Smartphone users in Canada, 2009-2016:
- 2009: 4.7 million (24.0% of mobile phone users)
- 2010: 6.0 million (29.0%)
- 2011: 8.3 million (38.0%)
- 2012: 10.5 million (46.0%)
- 2013: 12.2 million (51.0%)
- 2014: 14.0 million (56.5%)
- 2015: 15.3 million (59.5%)
- 2016: 16.4 million (62.0%)

comScore estimates that 45% of mobile phone users in Canada used a smartphone in December 2011, a 5-percentage-point increase over September 2011. (eMarketer, March 2012)

20.1 million Canadians ages 13 and older used mobile devices in September 2011, according to comScore. The number of people owning a smartphones reached 8 million, representing 40% of the mobile market in Canada, a gain of 7 percentage points in the past six months.

RIM ranked as the top platform with 35.8% of the smartphone market, followed by Apple at 30.1%. Google Android gained ground among the competition by doubling its market share to 25.0 over the past six months. Symbian ranked fourth with 4.2% share, followed by Microsoft with 3.2%.

Canadians use their mobile devices to access a wide variety of content. In September, 67.4% of the total Canada mobile audience used text messaging on their mobile device, compared to 88.1% of the Smartphone audience. Downloaded applications were used by 40.9% of the total mobile audience, compared to 84.2% of smartphone subscribers. Mobile browsers were another popular way of accessing mobile content, used by 36.9% of the total audience and 74.8% of the smartphone audience. 39.5% of the total audience and 79.3% of the smartphone audience used their phones to stay up-to-date on the latest news. Other popular mobile behaviours included accessing maps (44.4% of smartphone subscribers), accessing bank accounts (28.8% of smartphone subscribers) and scanning QR codes (18.1% of smartphone subscribers).

Select Mobile Content Usage in Canada, September 2011 (Total Canada Mobile Subscribers and Smartphone Subscribers Ages 13+):
- Sent text message: 67.4% of mobile subscribers / 88.1 of Smartphone subscribers
- Used downloaded application: 40.9% / 84.2%
- Accessed news and information: 39.5% / 79.3%
- Used browser: 36.9% / 74.8%
- Used email (work or personal): 32.7% / 69.3%
- Accessed Social Networking Site or Blog: 29.2% / 60.7%
- Played games: 28.0% / 53.2%
- Accessed weather: 27.5% / 60.2%
- Accessed search: 24.2% / 51.2%
- Listened to music on mobile phone: 20.8% / 40.7%
- Accessed maps: 20.1% / 44.4%
- Accessed sports information: 14.8% / 31.5%
- Accessed entertainment news: 14.2% / 29.5%
- Accessed bank accounts: 13.5% / 28.8%
- Scanned QR/bar code with mobile phone: 8.1% / 18.1%

(comScore, November 2011)

Smartphone penetration across Canada reached 30% in August 2011, up from 23% in January 2011, according to Ipsos Reid. While still achieving growth, the growth potential for smartphone ownership appears to be levelling off slightly.

No doubt, Canadians are still very interested in smartphone devices, and Ispos anticipates these will eventually be in the hands of most adult Canadians and, to a slightly lesser degree tweens and teens, but the growth curve is more likely to be flatter in the coming years as adoption begins to slow from this point of 30% penetration.

Canada's unique mobile landscape is illustrated by the fact that many Canadians are locked into long-term contracts. The desire to upgrade to a smartphone may be there, but the opportunity to do so may be contractually limited (unless the customer is of course willing to pay a penalty). This may also present a unique opportunity for tablet marketers to snag sales from Canadians interested in a more sophisticated mobile device, but who are not in a position yet to upgrade their feature phone to a smartphone until their contract has expired. (Ipsos Reid, October 2011)

Approximately three in every four mobile device users in Canada report having downloaded at least one App to their mobile device (71% of smartphone users and 80% of tablet users), according to Ipsos Reid's Mobil-logy Study of Smartphone, Tablet & eReader users in Canada.

While this may seem high - context is everything. The study conducted in February 2011 shows 23% of online adult Canadians (18+) own a true smartphone (this excludes web-enabled phones) and 3% of the same own a tablet. In absolute terms, usage across Canada is still relatively small. When we consider that 71% of the 23% of smartphone users have downloaded an App, that equates to 16% of the online adult population in Canada and for tablets it translates to 2%.

Experience with Apps varies considerably among smartphone users, depending on the operating system of their device. The study revealed that almost every iPhone user has downloaded an App (96%) - a figure that is pulling up the average. By comparison, far fewer BlackBerry users have done the same (59%). Users of other smartphones using a different operating system (primarily Android users) fall somewhere in between (66%).

The variation in App experience between different smartphone operating systems is magnified further when exploring the number of Apps users have on their devices. On average, Smartphone users estimate they have 19 Apps on their device at any one time (the average number of Apps for a tablet is higher at 25). The number goes up considerably among Apple iPhone users, who report five times more Apps than BlackBerry users (34 Apps versus 6 Apps). It is expected that this gap will narrow as BlackBerry moves to a more sophisticated Operating System.

Results from the Mobil-ology study suggest that smartphones and tablets represent two very different value propositions for their users. The smartphone in principal delivers on utility, yet the tablet fundamentally serves an entertainment purpose. Where we do see similarities between the two mobile devices relates to the genres of Apps Canadians are using. Regardless of device, Weather and Gaming Apps top the list in terms of popularity.

Top App genres - smartphones & tablets (online adults 18+ who own a smartphone/tablet and have downloaded at lest one App on respective device), February 2011:
- Weather: 65% (smartphones) / 67% (tablets)
- Games: 64% / 76%
- Social networking: 57% / 41%
- Maps & Navigation: 52% / 47%
- Instant Messaging: 43% / 21%
- Entertainment: 42% / 53%
- Music & Audio: 36% / 43%
- Search engine: 35% / 46%
- News (NET): 32% / 49%
- Sports: 28% / 24%
- Books: 18% / 61%

(Ipsos, June 2011)

Three-in-ten online Canadians (31%) own a smartphone in Canada, an increase of over 50% since previously measured in the spring of 2010, according to the Ipsos Inter@ctive Reid Report.

And as ownership rises, so too does usage, with smartphone owners spending an astonishing 17.3 hours per week using their device. Not surprisingly, smartphone ownership is significantly higher amongst younger Canadians; in particular, 46% of those online Canadians aged 18 to 34 own a smartphone, and their usage (20.6hrs/week) is significantly higher than older Canadians.

Evolving into one of the most beneficial and useful tech-tools available to Canadians, smartphones are used for more than 10 functions by more than one-quarter of online smartphone owners, and for the first time ever, the majority of smartphone usage (54%) is for activities other than talking.

The majority of smartphone users take photos (70%), send or read email (70%), check the weather (52%), and send or receive IM's (52%) with their device. The most drastic increase in smartphone usage rates is connected with social networking (Facebook/Twitter), with 48% of smartphone owners use their devices to check social networking sites, an increase of nearly twenty points since previously measured in the spring of 2010. (Ipsos, May 2011)

Mobile subscribers in Canada exhibited strong usage of mobile media on their devices, according to comScore. In March 2011, 40.6% of mobile users in Canada used an application on their mobile device in March 2011, while 32.7% used a mobile browser.

Accessing of news/information was conducted by 35.2% of the mobile audience, while social networking sites or blogs were used by 25.4%. Sending text messages and taking photos with their phone were the top two activities, used by 64.5% and 48.9%, respectively. Accessing work or personal email represented 29.7% of the total mobile audience.

Mobile behaviours in Canada, March 2011 (Total Canada Mobile Audience, Age 13+):
- Sent text message: 64.5% of mobile subscribers
- Took photos: 48.9%
- Used application: 40.6%
- Accessed news and information: 35.2%
- Used browser: 32.7%
- Used email (work or personal): 29.7%
- Played games: 27.3%
- Accessed social networking site or blog: 25.4%
- Accessed weather: 22.9%
- Used major instant messaging service: 21.1%
- Accessed search: 21.1%
- Captured video: 20.3%
- Listened to music on mobile phone: 19.0%
- Accessed maps: 17.5%
- Accessed sports information: 13.1%
- Accessed entertainment news: 13.0%
- Accessed movie information: 12.0%
- Accessed bank accounts: 11.1%
- Accessed restaurant information: 9.8%
- Accessed financial news or stock quotes: 9.4%

In March 2011, 6.6 million people in Canada owned smartphones, representing one-third of the total mobile audience. (comScore, June 2011)

33% of Canada's mobile phone users have a smartphone, according to a March survey conducted by Quorus Consulting for the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA).

Traditional mobile phone vs. Smartphone users in Canada, by age, March 2011 (% of respondents):
TOTAL: 67% for mobile phone / 33% for smartphone
- 14-17: 68% / 32%
- 18-24: 44% / 55%
- 25-34: 57% / 43%
- 35-44: 57% / 43%
- 45-54: 71% / 29%
- 55+: 82% / 17%

Meanwhile, related research by Ipsos Reid expands the smartphone base to nearly a third of all internet users in Canada, a figure which has grown more than 50% since early 2010. Younger generations are leading the shift, as 46% of internet users ages 18 to 34 have already made the switch to smartphones, according to Ipsos. The CWTA found that penetration spikes at 55% among mobile phone users ages 18 to 24.

Usage is likewise growing more sophisticated. Talking is now a secondary consideration, with the Ipsos survey finding that 54% of all smartphone usage is for something other than voice calls. One-fifth of Canada's smartphone owners access the internet on their devices more than 5 hours per week.  Smartphones are also helping to spread awareness of QR codes and other barcode formats. According to the CWTA, 65% of smartphone users are aware of 2-D barcodes, while 28% have scanned one with their phone. (eMarketer, June 2011)

Mobile subscribers in Canada exhibited strong usage of mobile media on their devices, according to comScore. In March 2011, 40.6% of mobile users in Canada used an application on their mobile device in March 2011, while 32.7% used a mobile browser.

Discover Anywhere Mobile, a Toronto-based software and services company specializing in location-aware applications for mobile devices and platforms, has introduced the DiscoverPad.

The DiscoverPad platform is built using the live data  that a destination has already published. Discover Anywhere does all of the maintainance for the DiscoverPad application, including ensuring the data is up-to-date and managing the Apple App Store submissions.

The DMO gets a downloadable iPad application that is branded for the destination. The traveller gets an application on their iPads that is specific to the destination they are visiting.

he Discover Anywhere website says the DiscoverPad application includes:
- Complete events calendar;
- Complete listings database, organized by theme/category;
- Viewing of listings and events on a map and in "detail mode," showing contact information, listing details, a photo album and integrated videos;
- "Map locking" to explore what's available in a particular neighbourhood;
- The "My Trip" organizer, allowing quick drag-and-drop planning for multi-day trips;
- "Send to iPhone," allowing visitors' trip plans to be wirelessly transferred to their iPhones;
- "Upload My Trip," to allow visitors to store their trips for sharing and printing - each trip gets it's own web page with listing descriptions, Google Maps and contact information;
- "E-mail My Trip," to allow people to mail their trip plans to their friends and also to provide opt-in capture email addresses for direct marketing;
- "Kiosk-mode," for optimal deployment to hotels and visitors centers;
- Pre-planned trips for getting visitors started and to highlight points of interest in the destination; and
- Discover Anywhere Mobile's "no CMS" solution, designed to minimize the work the DMO needs to do to maintain its DiscoverPad (and other Discover Anywhere Mobile) solutions.

The DiscoverPad application is expected to be available to existing and new customers starting September 2010. (tnooz.com,  August 2010)

iPad and other tablets

Uptake of tablets has begun in earnest in Canada. Tablet adoption grew 400% in Canada in just over a year and a half, with a penetration rate of 15% among internet users, up from 3% in January 2011, according to August data from Ipsos Reid. Ereaders, by comparison, increased penetration by 200% over the same time period, and smartphones by 75%, albeit from a much more established user base.

Internet users in Canada who use select mobile devices, January 2011-August 2012 (% of respondents):
- Smartphone: 23% in Jan 2011, growing to 40% in Aug 2012   
- Tablet: 3% in Jan 2011, growing to 15% in Aug 2012
- Ereader: 4% in Jan 2011, growing to 12% in Aug 2012

Apple's iPad has the headstart in the tablet market in Canada, and continues to maintain a significant lead, but others (especially devices on the Android OS) are catching up. Samsung, Acer and Asus, which primarily run Android, together accounted for 19% of the Canadian market in August, up from 13% one year prior. (eMarketer, September 2012)

Tablet ownership in Canada doubled between January and August of 2011, according to the August 2011 wave of the Ipsos Reid's Mobil-ology Study of Smartphone, Tablet & eReader users in Canada. Overall, 6% of online adult Canadians now own a tablet.

Although tablet ownership is still somewhat of a niche and emerging market, the study found that the growth rate for tablets has outpaced the growth rate for smartphones by three-to-one. While tablet ownership between January and August of 2011 doubled, smartphone ownership only increased by 30% (while not as strong as Tablets, eReaders grew by 75% over the same period).

The indicators suggest that interest and potential for such devices will only increase. Based upon results from the Mobil-ology study, tablet fulfills an entertainment need, and in many cases is replacing some laptop use. Ipsos expects tablets to be among the hottest items for the upcoming holiday season.

The study found that there are some interesting demographic skews that contribute to the tablet story in Canada. Whereas early adoption was concentrated among those aged 35+, Canada is now seeing increased adoption by those 18-34 (up by 106% since January 2011). This may be due in part to the recent introduction of more competitively priced devices allowing younger Canadians, with presumably less disposable income to enter the market. As prices continue to drop and devices become more affordable, Canada is likely to see continued elevated growth among 18 to 34 years olds. (Ipsos Reid, October 2011)