UK smartphone users spend two years on mobile internet – survey


3 May 2012

Apple's iPhone 4S smartphone

Smartphone users in the UK spend an average of two years of their lives using the internet on their mobiles, a survey conducted by mobile phone news, reviews and comparison site Recombu suggests.

The average smartphone user spends five hours a week online on their mobile phones, which amounts to 260 hours and more than 10 days over the space of a year.

Just what are smartphone users doing during all that time online? Of the 2,000 people polled, 40pc said they update their social media accounts, such as Facebook and Twitter, 24pc check email, and 22pc shop.

All that internet usage via smartphone has 22pc of respondents watching less TV, but there are other effects, too.

Eleven per cent of respondents said they exercise less, and 26pc spend less time reading physical books, although this could be made up by some respondents reading e-books on their smartphones.

Smartphone users are also showing a shift in communication – 18pc of respondents said they now make fewer phone calls, a result of using the internet and social networks.