Firm Announces New Research before Mobile World Congress this Month

In advance of Mobile World Congress this month, Parks Associates released new mobile research today showing 86% of U.S. broadband households now own a smartphone. The smartphone markets in European nations, like in the U.S., have become mature and highly competitive. Among broadband households in Western Europe, 76% in the U.K., 82% in Germany, 78% in France, and 90% in Spain own a smartphone.

“Apple remains the dominant smartphone manufacturer in the U.S., but Samsung is catching up,” said Harry Wang, Director, Health & Mobile Product Research, Parks Associates. “Apple controls 40% of the smartphone market, while Samsung has 31% and LG is the next closest rival with 10%.”

The research, 360 View: Mobility & the App Economy, shows one-third of Apple iPhone owners still have a model that is more than two years old, compared to 30% of Samsung phone owners. Forty-five percent of all U.S. broadband households wait two years to upgrade their smartphone.

“Operators are pulling out all the tricks to encourage phone upgrades,” Wang said. “The once-familiar two-year contract, which tied consumers to a two-year phone upgrade cycle, is gradually fading. U.S. carriers started to do away with two-year contracts in 2012, and by the third quarter of 2015, only 51% of mobile consumers had a contract, down from almost 70% at the end 2011.”

360 View: Mobility & the App Economy tracks mobile consumer loyalty, subscriber expectations, and trends in mobile data consumption and Wi-Fi usage, as well as the impact of new mobile service programs on mobile consumer loyalty. The research shows T-Mobile leads in enrollment for early upgrade programs, with almost one-third of its customers enrolled in the company’s early handset upgrade program. AT&T is second, with more than one-fourth of their customers enrolled.

“A customer-centric approach has returned to the mobile service market in the U.S., thanks to T-Mobile’s maverick ‘uncarrier’ moves,” Wang said. “T-Mobile’s strategy has forced AT&T and Verizon to re-examine how they design and market services to consumers. They have responded with moves that either match T-Mobile’s initiatives or benefit their customers in a different way.”

Additional mobile research from Parks Associates shows:

• More than 70% of smartphone users now watch short streaming video clips, and more than 40% watch long streaming videos on their device.
• Almost 40% of smartphone users use the voice recognition function; among iPhone users, more than half have used Siri.
• Other advanced smartphone activities include the following:
  • 36% use Wi-Fi calling
  • 35% stream music from the phone to speakers
  • 26% use a payment app for purchases at a retail location
  • 24% stream video from the phone to a second screen (e.g., TV, PC, etc.)

Parks Associates is supporting Mobile World Congress, February 22-25, 2016, in Barcelona, Spain, and Wang will attend the event.

For more information on Parks Associates research, visit www.parksassociates.com. To schedule an interview with Harry Wang or to request specific data, contact Holly Sprague at [email protected], 720.987.6614.

About Parks Associates: Parks Associates, a woman-founded and certified business, is an internationally recognized market research and consulting company specializing in emerging consumer technology products and services. Founded in 1986, Parks Associates provides business intelligence and research services through its proprietary methodologies developed over decades, including quarterly surveys of 10,000 internet households.

The company's expertise crosses many industries: home security and smart home, streaming video, broadband and pay-TV services, digital media and platforms, gaming, Wi-Fi and home networks, connected health, support, consumer electronics, home control systems, energy management, and tech solutions for the multi-dwelling (MDU), small-to-medium business (SMB), and commercial building markets.

Each year, Parks Associates brings thousands of leaders together for its webinars and annual events. The firm hosts the annual executive research and strategy conferences CONNECTIONS™, Connected Health Summit, Smart Energy Summit, Smart Spaces, and Future of Video. https://www.parksassociates.com
 

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