Mobile Market Research & Business Solutions

According to the latest NPD Connected Intelligence Mobile Connectivity Report, the average U.S. smartphone upgrade cycle is 32 months, up from 25 months one year prior (2H 2017 vs. 2H 2016). The report also finds that the prepaid segment continues to record the shortest upgrade cycle, due in part to affordable pricing and high churn.

New smartphones often deliver growth opportunities in the mobile accessories space. Growth in wireless charging in Q4 2017 is a prime example.

More than 1-in-5 consumers purchased or browsed for products online via a mobile device when holiday shopping for themselves or others, according to global information company The NPD Group. That number was double among Millennial consumers, between the ages of 18 and 34.

I remember getting my first cell phone like it was yesterday. It was my 15 ^th birthday and the phone I was thrilled to receive was dumb, heavy and oh so cool all at the same time. I could make phone calls, text (by triple-tapping the numeric keypad) and play the one pre-installed game – Snake.  Thirteen years later, I’ve had my share of ever-evolving phones from the Motorola Razr, to the very first iPhone, and so on. I have games galore, messaging apps and yes, I can still make the occasional phone call.

But is it any more exciting, or even as “cool” as I used to think it was? Smartphones seem to have peaked, with longer life-spans and slower sales, as there seems to be less and less to differentiate the old from the new. In other words, we’ve hit a level of maturity and with it, a tinge of dullness. This has resulted in the murmuring of a retro vibe: hipsters now sneer at smartphones, opting instead for flip phones. And a new “Motorola” ad suggests the Razr may be brought back later this month… I hope so, if only to shake up the market.

Not that I want to regress to the flip phone of my past, but we need a new take on the smartphone market; a new niche or “wow factor” to recapture user interest and justify expense. After all, the average cost of a smartphone is around $500 and can quickly head far higher than that, now that subsidies are (almost) a thing of the past. Simply put, the current design focus of “bigger, faster, lighter” is, in many ways, the enemy of true innovation and is limiting the appeal of the latest generation of devices. How fast do I really need a phone to be? Can I make mine last longer if it’s still running the apps without the processor choking?

One approach that is teetering on the edge of emergence is that of a modular smartphone. Conceptually the idea of modular smartphones is great: when your battery level is critically low, just pop in a new one (of course, my original flip phone could do that too…). Want a better picture? Snap in the higher megapixel lens. Broke the screen again? Click in a new one and be on your way. However, with this flexibility also comes a lot of responsibility. Where do we keep the many auxiliary pieces? Do we drag them around with us at all times? Or does it come down to dressing up our phone for the day ahead before walking out the door in the morning - not a bad idea in concept, but I’m not convinced that we will still be “dressing” the phone after the first week.

Time will be the only indicator of whether or not this concept will take a foothold in the market. Until then, the one main feature I would like to see come out of the mobile world in the next year is a smartphone with longer battery life. Forget “bigger, faster, lighter”; give me “longer.” But ideally, give me that with a cooler outer shell. Something that shouts that it is different in the way the original Razr did. Maybe Motorola is on to something…

It’s no secret that we all keep our smartphones close, and they are the most personal of personal devices that are available to us. Indeed, on average we interact with our phones 150 times in a given day, which means that if we assume that we all get a decent night’s sleep, we reach for our phones every six-to-seven minutes during the waking hours.

The very first reach for the phone often happens as soon as we wake up. About one-third of smartphone-toting consumers fall asleep with their phone nearby, reaching for it as soon as they wake up. Indeed, the phone is very much the third wheel in many relationships (and fourth, as it’s likely the other person in the bed also has their phone nearby). And while it could be interesting to see how these phones change the romantic dynamic, we’ll stay on safer ground and look at exactly what people are using their phones for first thing in the morning.

According to the Connected Intelligence Smartmeter, 12.5 percent of smartphone users check their in-box as soon as they reach for their phones in the morning (during the work week). Why do I find this surprising? Simply because social networks are the go-to service for personal updates, which means that a lot of the email checking is likely to be work related. So that suggests that 12.5 percent of smartphone users are pretty dedicated to their work email; and the number only drops down to 10.8 percent during the weekend, meaning that many of us need to get a bit more of a life outside work!

The second shocker for the morning regime is that placing or receiving a phone call is the second most popular activity. Six percent of smartphone owners take part in a good old-fashioned voice call first thing in the morning, which is more than particpate in a group chat or messaging app at this time of the day. Of course, the difference is that, on average, we make seven calls per day, spending just over 30 minutes chatting in total. By contrast, consumers spend almost double that in group chat apps, which is something I can personaly attest to. I seem to be constantly bouncing between five different OTT group chats, including a work chat group, family, various groups of friends, and a soccer group (at least this shows I have a work/life balance to counter the possibility that I’m checking email too early on a Sunday).

In between voice calling and group chats is music use, with just under six percent of the base listening to music first thing in the morning. Wrapping up the early morning list are navigation and weather apps as we prepare for the day ahead and the traffic congestion that we may face. Those apps make sense to me, because if the weather forecast is too gray, or the traffic congestion too grim, then perhaps I’ll just turn up the volume and listen to a few more tunes before making my move in the morning.