Despite countless differences between the U.K. and the U.S., when it comes to ways of getting online the two developed nations act the same. A new Ofcom report shows that in average Brits use their smartphone for about two hours every day for activities such as browsing the Web, online banking and shopping, and accessing social media.
According to the report, now around two-thirds of Brits are owners of a smartphone and around a third of Internet users prefer their tablet or smartphone to navigate online instead of a laptop. Smartphones and tablets are regularly used to share photos, read the news and check email. According to Ofcom, just last year the situation was different since a majority of internet users still preferred their computer for online activities.
In the U.K., the smartphone shift has become more pronounced since the year 2012. At that time, only 39 percent of U.K. adults carried a smartphone. Today, 66 percent of Brits carry their cell phone at any time.
Ofcom explains this shift by faster online access via 4G mobile broadband. Subscriptions to 4G mobile service have increased from only 2.7 million in the year 2014 to around 23.6 million today.
According to the director of research at Ofcom, James Thickett, 4G allows users do everything on their supercharged smartphones, from catching up with friends via video calls to weekly shopping. Smartphones have overtaken laptops for the first time, Thickett explained and are now "the hub of our daily lives" and "U.K.'s most popular Internet device".
However, pocket-sized gadgets did not replace only laptops in consumer preferences. Smartphones also push digital cameras on their way out, since now smartphones take now more photos than any other device.
According to Ofcom's report, 60 percent of adults use their smartphones to take selfies and pictures on the go. For instance, according to Ofcom's estimates, the Brits took around 1.2 billion selfies in the past year. The report suggested that Scots in particular like to take selfies, since last year nearly a quarter of Scottish folks have taken a selfie, and 8 percent of them have taken even at least one per week.
The conclusion of the Ofcom report is that, with record ownership and usage, the U.K. and in particular Scotland and Northern Irland, have become officially "smartphone societies." More time is spent online, as more people use their tablet or smartphone. The U.K. had last year a record increase in time spent online in a decade. Compared to 17 hours per week in 2013, U.K. Internet users spent in 2014 more than 20 hours on the Web each week.
Another recent report from Ericsson claims that by 2020 global smartphone subscriptions will reach 6.1 billion, which would be more than double of today numbers. It is expected that 90 percent of people will be covered by mobile broadband networks and 70 percent of them will use smartphones.
