IDC tracks big jump in NZ smartphone ownership

A new mobile research report from IDC New Zealand says smartphone ownership by households has jumped significantly from 13% in 2011 to around 44% in 2012.

In its most recently published unit figures, for the second quarter of 2011, IDC said 310,000 phones were shipped into the New Zealand market, with 58% falling into thesmartphones category.

That percentage was up on the first quarter, when 320,000 phones were shipped into NZ, with just under 50% being smartphones.

iPhone shipments jumped 20% quarter-on-quarter (to account for around 15% of the total cellphone market).

But handsets based on Google's Android software were growing even faster at about 40% quarter-on-quarter to capture around a third of the total mobile phone market.

This is on the back of an increasingly competitive mobile market being driven by customers demand for better value and the greater access to applications and the internet that smartphones allow.

During March, Telecom said 25% of its customers now use smartphones, up from around 20% in November last year before the iPhone was added to its line-up. Vodafone and 2degrees declines to supply a percentage.

The research report also provides analysis on the key market and competitive trends IDC has noted in the New Zealand mobile market. Related to the growth in smartphones is the continuing growth in mobile data revenues. IDC is forecasting mobile data to grow at a compound annual growth rate (2011–2016) of 16.6%. Data growth rates closely align with smartphone penetration and are strongly influenced by how data offers are packaged and by the level of investment operators put into helping educate their customer base.

The Commerce Commission's recently released annual telecommunications report said mobile data use doubled during 2011 as more people used smartphones, and data got cheaper.

50% of US cellphone users now own smartphone
IDC's NZ study gels with a March survey of the US market by Nielsen.

Nielsen found that 50.4% of US cellphone owners now use a smartphone.

Smartphone market share numbers were stable.

Android phones slightly increased their lead to take 48.5% of the market.

Apple held 32%.

RIM's BlackBerry was on 11.6%

And Microsoft's Windows Phone software (which has been most heavily pushed on Nokia's new Lumia series) took 1.7%.

Headsets based on the older Windows Mobile sat on 4.1%.

Meanwhile, a study reported by Ad Week found 12% of US mothers born between 1977 and 1994 have used a smartphone during sex.