Canada the ‘fastest growing’ smartphone market in G7, comScore says

OTTAWA—Canadian smartphone penetration rate reached 54 per cent this summer and Canada is now the fastest growing smartphone market among G7 countries, new data released by comScore Inc. said. In a presentation at the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) Mixx Canada 2012 conference on Friday, Darrick Li, account manager at comScore Canada, said Canadian smartphone penetration rates grew by nine per cent between the end of 2011 (when the company reported penetration rates of 45 per cent) and June 2012. He said Canada is the “fastest growing smartphone market in terms of penetration” across eight regions for which the company collected data for its 2012 MobiLens survey, which covers Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Japan. The report surveyed 5,500 Canadians about their mobile usage habits. The data is dated June 2012 according to presentation slides shared with The Wire Report. Li said the survey found that Google Inc. Android-powered smartphones have a 34 per cent share of the Canadian market and that Apple Inc.’s iPhones account for 32 per cent, and Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry's 27 per cent. Li said RIM’s share of the market slipped from 38 per cent in June 2011. According to the survey, Rogers Communications Inc. is the leading domestic mobile operator with a 25 per cent share of the Canadian market. “One in four mobile subscribers are on the Rogers operator network,” Li said. He said Telus Corp. followed with 23 per cent mobile market share and BCE Inc. had 19 per cent. Li said more Canadians used their smartphones to access weather-related content than any other type of content. He said 61 per cent of Canadians use their smartphones to get information about the weather, 45 per cent for maps, and 38 per cent for news content. ComScore found that there is “still a very small market” for mobile shopping in Canada, with a majority of smartphone owners not using their devices to make online purchases. By contrast, Li said, comScore data suggests about 40 per cent of American tablet-owners use their tablets to complete online orders. Craig Morris, account executive of Canadian sales at digital video advertising platform and solutions provider Videology Inc., who also presented video consumption statistics at the IAB conference Friday, said 21 per cent of Canadians watched video through over-the-top services such as Apple TV, Google TV, Boxee and Roku, and that another 21 per cent watched video on smart TVs made by Samsung Electronics Co. or Sony Corp. According to Videology’s online consumer survey on video viewing trends, conducted for IAB's Mixx conference, 34 per cent of users plan to consume video on alternative devices in the next year, Morris said. The report surveyed 554 Canadians in August 2012 about their video viewing habits. Morris said 16 per cent of respondents said they have no TV or cable subscriptions and the same amount said there are more viewing options online. He said one-in-two Canadians watch video on digital devices other than televisions, but less than two per cent of Canadian advertising spending goes onto these devices. “Consumers in Canada really are ingesting content across multiple screens and across new devices that, a few years ago, we really didn’t see,” Morris said. Li said global Internet users spend about 35 billion hours online per month, up from about 20 billion hours per month in 2007. dgrenier@thewirereport.ca

Canada the ‘fastest growing’ smartphone market in G7, comScore says

News | 10/01/2012 5:27 pm EDT

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