A new whitepaper from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech probes the rapidly maturing world of smartphones.
The transition into higher adoption rates for smartphones means that future sales and vendors’ success rely on converting feature phone users to smartphones as much as luring existing smartphone users to upgrade, the report summary reads.
Hardware, fantastic as many of us see it, will not always sell itself. Understanding what drives first-time users to invest in a smartphone and how they can benefit from it is vital.
According to the data presented, the U.S. market’s smartphone penetration stood at 55% in Q1 2014 and smartphone sales were 76% of overall mobile phone sales.
“As much as US consumers can be familiar with the term ‘smartphone,'” the report authors note. “they still do their due diligence before purchasing their devices. Only 30% of buyers in Q1 2014 did not conduct any research before buying a smartphone.”
For the 70% who do conduct research prior to buying, recommendations and advice are huge influencers, the research firm explains. “One fifth of consumers interacted with store sales assistants before going back into a store to buy, and one quarter sought advice from friends.”
