Among 18-34-year-old Irish internet users, 78pc of those surveyed said they consider their smartphone their ‘most important screen’, far exceeding other devices, a new survey suggests.
O2 Media, the mobile media division of O2 Ireland, conducted the survey to find out how 230 Irish people’s lives are affected by their day-to-day usage of devices, with a particular focus on smartphones, TVs, desktop PCs, laptops and tablets.
Following the majority of people using their smartphones as their go-to device, 80pc of those surveyed showed they would willingly sacrifice any of their other devices as long as they were able to keep their smartphone – the one device they ‘cannot live without’.
Major distractions
Another interesting statistic shows that if TV wasn’t a distraction enough, now smartphones are an even bigger distraction when watching TV itself.
Figures show that the same 18-34 bracket are only taking in a certain amount of the TV they watch as they spend about 57pc of their time also watching content on their smartphone at the same time.
The biggest surprise to come out of the survey indicates that while marketers claim laptops and desktop PCs are dying a slow death in terms of sales and usage, tablets have still to make up any significant share of devices used by Irish people, with only 2pc of 18-34-year-olds saying they couldn’t live without their tablet.
Likewise, in the same demographic, tablets make up only 1pc for those surveyed who said it would be their most used device. Older generations, however, show a greater use of tablets, with 3pc of 35-44-year-olds and 8pc of 45-54-year-olds using it most frequently.
PCs and laptops still hold a majority, however, when it comes to purchasing online, 69pc declared they would still purchase with the traditional systems compared with 13pc who make purchases over smartphones.
