In U.K., iPhone top smartphone for e-mail, Web use
A majority of iPhone users in the country use the Apple device for e-mail and Web content, ComScore report reveals, while other smartphones are much less active online.
iPhone users in the United Kingdom heavily rely on their device for accessing e-mail and Web content, compared with owners of other smartphones in the country, according to a report released Thursday by market researcher ComScore.
During a three-month period concluding in January, ComScore found that 79.7 percent of U.K. iPhone users accessed news and other Web information with their iPhone. Contrast that to 48 percent for users of all smartphones.
And e-mail also has struck a chord, with 75.4 percent of iPhone users relying on the device for checking their in-boxes and sending messages, compared to 35.4 percent for users of all smartphones.
While U.S. smartphone users may assume that surfing the Web is the only reason for getting a smartphone in the first place, apparently, that is not the case in the United Kingdom.
"Over the past several quarters, the U.K. smartphone market has been dominated by the N95, which lacks a QWERTY keyboard. As a result, we see smartphone users favor using their device for music and photo messaging, two activities for which these Nokia devices are particularly well-suited, more than e-mail," Alistair Hill, a ComScore analyst, said in a statement.
Currently, iPhone users represent only 2 percent of the U.K.'s mobile-phone market, ComScore noted. The number of U.K. iPhones reached 1 million in February, according to figures from Spanish telecommunications carrier Telefonica Europe.