Simon on: Smartphones

There is an assumption, frequently repeated, that ‘everybody these days has a smartphone’. It’s a claim that’s used to support the idea assertion that organisers need to provide services for attendees to use on their smartphones. The trouble is that the claim is wrong.

Recent analysis by research company ComScore shows that 51.3 per cent of mobile phones in Britain were smartphones in Q4 2011. Obviously the proportion will vary from one age group to another and between market sectors but ComScore shows that almost half of phones in this country are not smartphones. That said, it is true that smartphone sales are increasing but it will be a while before they become the standard.

That is a serious issue for any organiser but even that overstates the case for smartphones. It ignores the fact that some smartphone owners won’t use technology developed for the phones. They may have a smartphone only because their company provides it and they may not be allowed to use software not provided by the company.

Clearly this means that systems that rely on smartphones will be immensely useful for reaching around half of any market but organisers need to remember the other half.

 Originally published in Conference News