UK Leads European Countries in Smartphone Adoption with 70% Growth in Past 12 Months
Growth in Mid-Tier Subscriptions Suggests Significant Opportunity for Smartphone Manufacturers
LONDON, U.K., 31st March, 2010 – Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released a study of the smartphone market in Europe showing that smartphone adoption in the EU5 (U.K., France, Germany, Spain, Italy) has grown 32 percent versus a year ago to 51.6 million subscribers. Whilst growth can be seen across the range of monthly subscription fees, the mid to low tier is growing faster than high tier subscriptions in each of the EU5 markets.
The U.K. market strongly leads in growth of smartphone adoption over the past year, growing 70 percent to more than 11 million subscribers. France ranks second in growth with the number of smartphone subscribers up 48 percent to 7 million. Meanwhile, Italy boasts the largest number of smartphone subscribers overall (15 million) but showed the softest growth in this market at 11 percent.
Smartphone Subscribers | |||
Smartphone Subscribers (000) | |||
Jan-09 | Jan-10 | % Change | |
EU5 | 38,994 | 51,623 | 32% |
U.K. | 6,525 | 11,109 | 70% |
France | 4,842 | 7,140 | 48% |
Germany | 6,309 | 8,429 | 34% |
Spain | 7,809 | 9,907 | 27% |
Italy | 13,510 | 15,037 | 11% |
Smartphone Payment Tiers
In evaluating monthly subscription fees, the high tier (greater than £35 in U.K. and €50 in Euro currency countries) is not growing as strongly as the mid to low tier. The U.K. has the highest pace of both mid to low tier adoption (up 76 percent) and high-tier adoption (up 60 percent), followed by France (52 percent and 43 percent, respectively).
Smartphone Growth by Payment Tier*3 Month Average Ending Jan. 2010 vs. 3 Month Average Ending Jan. 2009Total EU5 (UK, DE, FR, ES and IT), Age 13+ | ||||||
Smartphone Subscribers (000) | ||||||
Mid to Low Tier | High Tier | |||||
Jan-2009 | Jan-2010 | % Change | Jan-2009 | Jan-2010 | % Change | |
U.K. | 3,826 | 6,745 | 76% | 2,515 | 4,037 | 60% |
France | 3,087 | 4,695 | 52% | 1,600 | 2,280 | 43% |
Germany | 4,314 | 6,077 | 41% | 1,876 | 2,206 | 18% |
Spain | 4,462 | 6,257 | 40% | 3,200 | 3,475 | 9% |
Italy | 9,839 | 11,259 | 14% | 3,039 | 3,159 | 4% |
* High Tier pricing model includes Smartphones with monthly subscription fee of over £35 in UK and over €50 in France, Germany, Spain and Italy. Some respondents do not disclose tariff information
“Smartphones are generally seen as luxury devices that come with big price tags and high monthly tariffs, yet the largest segment of the market and the one demonstrating greatest momentum is actually the low to mid tier,” says Alistair Hill, senior mobile analyst at Comscore. “The growth in these tiers suggests that as smartphones become more affordable to the majority of European consumers, their proliferation will increase considerably and lead to a surge in mobile content and data consumption. Such market dynamics offer substantial opportunity for different players in the mobile ecosystem -- from operators and manufacturers to publishers and advertisers --- and underscore the importance of competing for customers now to engender long-term loyalty.”
January 2010 European Mobile Benchmark Data
Below is Comscore’s January 2010 benchmark data, including a review of mobile consumption behaviours and device penetration for five EU countries. This benchmark data will be updated on a monthly basis to provide the most up-to-date snapshot of the mobile industry. Further information on this benchmark data, and other data included above, can be provided upon request.
Mobile Benchmark Data for the European Market | ||||||
Reach (%) of Mobile Subscribers | ||||||
EU5 | UK | DE | FR | ES | IT | |
Sent an SMS/Text | 83.5% | 90.3% | 81.6% | 81.7% | 84.5% | 79.5% |
Used Application (including games) | 33.4% | 37.6% | 33.3% | 23.6% | 36.1% | 37.0% |
Listened to Music | 22.7% | 21.4% | 24.6% | 19.9% | 28.7% | 20.4% |
Mobile Browsing | 22.2% | 30.8% | 17.4% | 21.7% | 19.9% | 20.7% |
Accessed Social Networking Site or Blog | 11.3% | 18.2% | 6.5% | 10.2% | 9.5% | 11.7% |
Accessed News | 9.6% | 13.7% | 7.5% | 9.0% | 6.7% | 10.4% |
3G Device | 42.4% | 41.7% | 38.3% | 36.7% | 53.3% | 45.2% |
Smartphone | 22.6% | 22.9% | 16.5% | 15.2% | 28.3% | 32.0% |
Top Smartphone Platforms | ||||||
Share (%) of Smartphone Subscribers | ||||||
EU5 | UK | DE | FR | ES | IT | |
Total Smartphone Subscribers | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% |
Symbian | 60.9% | 46.9% | 55.1% | 40.7% | 73.5% | 75.7% |
Apple | 14.5% | 20.5% | 15.3% | 29.9% | 6.5% | 7.7% |
Microsoft | 14.1% | 10.7% | 19.9% | 20.0% | 12.8% | 11.4% |
RIM | 8.3% | 18.7% | 6.8% | 5.4% | 5.2% | 4.7% |
2.0% | 3.0% | 2.2% | 3.7% | 1.8% | 0.4% |
About Comscore
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