More than half of the UK population now owns a smartphone, says report

It has been a long time coming, but it seems the UK’s mobile phone industry has finally reached tipping point, with more than half the population now owning a smartphone, compared to feature phones.
Back in November, reports abounded that half of the UK was now using smartphones as opposed to feature phones, but in fact the figure was closer to around 44%. However, perhaps fueled by the mass of smartphone sales over the Christmas period, with both iOS and Android platforms seeing a significant hike in activations 50.3% now owns a smartphone, reports Cellular News.
The latest data is derived from research firm Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, and shows that smartphones constituted 71.4% of all mobile phone sales in the three months leading to 22 January 2012. “For the first time ever, you are now in the minority if you don’t own a smartphone,” says Dominic Sunnebo, global consumer insight director at Kantar Worldpanel. “With more people jumping on the bandwagon, there is huge opportunity for both retailers and manufacturers. However, the competition is intense.”
Whilst Android still rules the roost in the UK, with around half of all smartphones shipping with Android, Apple has increased its market share over the past year, from 21.7% to 29.1%. “Windows Phone 7 is also creeping up,” says Sunnebo, “taking over 2% of the market for the first time with the Nokia Lumia 800 taking the lion’s share. This looks set to continue with the expected launch of at least two new models at the Mobile World Congress conference. We forecast this will help it to grow its share to around 8% in the latter half of 2012.”
Predictably, Symbian’s share has fallen to less than 3%, as Nokia gradually kills the mobile OS off in favor of Windows Phone 7. We’ve previously written that Nokia’s Lumia 800 was seeing strong pre-order sales in the UK, though official figures have yet to be released. It has received a pretty good reception all round though, and Windows Phone 7 could be set to gain significant ground as it launches across more handsets in the coming year.
“One of the real positives for Microsoft Windows Phone 7 is how engaged its users appear to be with its devices,” says Sunnebo. “Eighty one per cent of handset owners have used social networking on their device in the past month, higher than both iOS & Android. Meanwhile, three quarters have used GPS, indicating that its decision to include Nokia maps for free was a price worth paying to drive user engagement.”
Of course, smartphone sales doesn’t necessarily equate to high user-engagement – it’s likely that a significant chunk of smartphone-owners still primarily use it for calling and texting. But whatever your mobile phone of choice, just remember you are now in the minority of the population if you don’t own a smartphone.

Report: Mobile video on the increase as digital camera usage continues to wane

Video uploads via mobile devices are now much more common than they used to be, the photo and video sharing service Photobucket found out in a survey it conducted after Christmas.
Besides its Post Holiday Survey findings, the Denver-based company also integrated data garnered from its user base, which it summarized in an infographic.
Now independent again from News Corp, Photobucket claims to have 100 million users, who already uploaded 9.5 billion images so far. It also seems its recent partnership with Twitter gave it the boost it needed; according to Photobucket, its users currently upload over 4m images and videos per day.
Parts of this post holiday survey results are particularly interesting to understand the changing ways in which we interact with our cameras.
As we mentioned, video is increasingly popular; according to Photobucket’s data, 80% of the 2,227 respondents shot a video at least once during the holiday season. This is a net increase compared to summer 2011, a period on which the company had conducted a similar survey.
According to the company, its internal data further supports these findings, as video uploads to Photobucket.com have “more than doubled” in the past year.
As you can imagine, the surging popularity of mobile video is connected to the fact that our mobile devices are increasingly optimized for shooting quality pics.
This obviously had an impact on other photography devices. As Photobucket’s respondents also reported, the use of digital cameras has decreased this year, a trend that confirms the growing importance of camera-equipped mobile phones for amateur photographers (see our post ‘Did Apple redefine photography with the iPhone?‘).
It’s not just about the iPhone, Photobucket points out; according to internal data, 25% of its users’ mobile pictures were uploaded from Apple devices, while the remaining 75% came from Android devices (though it leaves us wondering what happened to Windows Phones and other platforms).
But beyond iPhones, Android phones and other smartphones, it is way too early to write digital cameras off. While only 64% used them as their main photography device this holiday season (vs. 82% in 2010), 38% of the respondents still switched between mobile devices and digital cameras in 2011.
This leads Photobucket to suggest that we still prefer to use cameras for pictures we care the most about. This could also have to do with the fact that we have all of our devices handy in the comfort of our homes during Christmas typical dinners, which isn’t always the case during summer holidays.
Overall, it’s worth keeping in mind that many users aren’t using mobile apps yet – 43% of the survey group have yet to try a mobile app for photos. However, those who do use these are increasingly active – 42% of the respondents used such an app more than once a day, up from 20% in Photobucket’s post summer survey.
The company seems particularly satisfied of its second free app, Snapbucket, which lets users edit and share pictures from their phone.

“We saw explosive growth in mobile in 2011; in fact, we topped 10 million mobile downloads to end the year,” Photobucket’s CEO Tom Munro says.

Sharing is also more and more common; 83% of the respondents stored their holiday images online, many of them with the intention of making these available through one or more social networks:
While it is way too early to know how 2012 figures will look like, chances are they will look quite different. It will be particularly interesting to take a closer look at social sharing; while MySpace’s popularity is declining, it remains to be seen if Google Photos could become Google+’s killer feature.
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New partnerships could see Apple sell 40m iPhones in China this year, says report.

Analysts at Morgan Stanley have predicted that Apple could sell more than 40 million iPhones in China this year, but only if the company partners with new operators in the country, according to a report from Apple Insider.

In a note to investors, Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty revealed that, as things stand, the firm foresees that Apple could reach a maximum of 10% of China’s 150 million “high-end mobile subscribers” through its exclusive partnership with China Unicom. However, the addition of relationships with China Telecom and China Mobile could see the Cupertino-based firm more than double its sales in the country, Huberty said.

China Telecom is rumoured to be all set to begin selling the iPhone, after it reportedly gained regulatory approval, while China Mobile may not be far behind. The world’s largest operator has long been a rumoured target for Apple, and the companies will reportedly come together when the carrier has finished testing its new 3G network in March.

According to the bank’s research, a China Telecom partnership could add between 2-4 million new devices. While, assuming that the device reaches 20% of China Mobile’s subscriber base, as it has with Unicom, Huberty estimates that a partnership with the operator could sell 24 million devices this year, rising to 36 million units by 2013.

China Mobile has more than 10 million iPhone users on its network – despite not having an official partnership with Apple – and there is no doubt that adding the 640-million-customer-strong carrier would massively increase Apple’s reach in China.

That said, recent reports have shown the iPhone effect is being overshadowed by other devices for China Unicom. The operator has added a record numbers of 3G subscribers and boosted its market share through the sales of more affordable devices, that are up to 80% cheaper than Apple’s smartphone.

Apple’s iPhone 4S launch caused controversy and, though the device sold out on launch day, scenes of chaos and violence at its Sanlitun store prompted Apple to later call-off sales of the phone across the country.

While there is no doubt that Apple is popular amongst Chinese consumers, it remains unaffordable to a great many in the country, despite the growing affluence of China’s middle class. As we suggested last year, a lower-priced device would be hugely disruptive for China and Asia in general, which could open Apple and the iPhone to new demographics.

Image credit: Flickr user williamhook