A recent study, “A Portrait of Today’s Smartphone User,” sponsored by the Online Publishers Association, concluded that smartphone users enjoy their smartphones and increasingly make use of them in a variety of ways.
The late March survey by Frank N. Magid Associates of 2,540 people, aged 8–64, was designed to give a snapshot of smartphone users along with understanding “trends around smartphone advertising and content buying.”
While the study was aimed at publishers, the findings certainly are applicable for radio broadcasters, especially in the area of mobile advertising and content usage. OPA President Pam Horan said, “Consumers now expect the world at their fingertips anytime, anywhere, and publishers have worked vigorously to optimize their mobile sites and create apps that cater to this demand and behavioral shift.”
For instance the study noted that the “primary types of content smartphone consumers access [via their Internet connection] are weather information (47%), video (31%), local news (29%) and national news (24%).” Those could be described as prime radio fodder.
And the smartphones are not going away, with massive adoption increasing every year, as the study notes. Lead takeaway in a release: “The study found that over two-thirds of smartphone owners reported that they ‘cannot live without’ their smartphones.”
Read the report (PDF)