Of those who claim they do not have a smartphone yet, Indonesian netizens appear to be the most likely to buy a smartphone, with 51% indicating that they "definitely/probably will purchase" the device in the next 12 months. In Singapore, where the penetration of smartphones is highest amongst netizens in the region, the number is about 38%. Male netizens across the region are more likely to buy a smartphone, with 50 percent indicating an intention of buying, compared to 41% of female netizens. On the same count, half of online consumers aged 25-34 planned on buying the device.
Answers to question - will you purchase a smartphone in the next twelve months?
South East Asia: 46% (definitely / probably will purchase) / 28% (not sure) / 27% definitely / probably will NOT purchase)
- Indonesia: 51% / 29% / 20%
- Thailand: 47% / 28% / 25%
- Vietnam: 46% / 23% / 32%
- Malaysia: 45% / 26% / 29%
- Phillipines: 40% / 30% / 30%
- Singapore: 39% / 31% / 30%
Mobile devices will continue to see solid growth in the near future, although that growth will not be even across the region. The more sophisticated markets like Singapore will drive growth, while developing markets like Vietnam will grow more slowly, according to Suresh Ramalingam, Managing Director, Telecom Practice, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa at The Nielsen Company.
While text messaging continues to be the most popular activity on a mobile phone (92% of respondents claimed to have texted in the past 30 days), accessing the internet on the devices is now the second-most popular activity (50%), and that number is set to increase as 62% of netizens in Southeast Asian planned on doing so in the next 12 months. Reading email, playing games and instant messaging rounded out the top five activities done on a mobile phone.
Mobile internet usage is destined to grow dramatically. As the region's consumers continue to become more affluent, smartphone penetration will rise and the number of people accessing the internet via mobiles will increase, especially with greater flexibility and affordability in data plans, according to Ramalingam.
When it comes to choosing smartphone operating systems, 58% of survey respondents preferred Nokia OS (the preferred OS in Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines) and 37% preferred Apple OS (the favourite in Singapore). One in five said they used BlackBerry, followed by Microsoft (18%) and Android (16%). About 20% of online survey respondents said they had downloaded a mobile app in the past 30 days. (Nielsen, May 2011)
