Pakistan joined the 3 & 4 G mobile broadband technology band wagon two months ago but over half of its smartphone users still access the internet through traditional Wifi, according to a post-3G study.
Android is the most popular mobile platform with majority of smartphone users being the younger lot, the study adds.
A majority of Pakistan’s smartphone users, 62.5% to be exact, connects with internet via Wifi mostly from home, while only a quarter of them use internet on the go.
In its study on smartphone usage by Grappetite a mobile phone application developing company. It was found that only 12% of smartphone users live without internet.
With 68% of smartphone users on Android, Google’s mobile operating system dominates the country’s rapidly expanding smartphone market followed by Apple’s iOS (24%) and Microsoft’s Windows Phone (8%),.
Grappetite’s study, also reveals that 77% of the country’s smartphone users age ranges between 21 and 30 years – an indication that smart devices are mainly used by the country’s young population. In contrast, those over 41 years of age comprise only 1% of total smartphone users.
The study also found that 41% users had over Rs500 monthly budget for mobile phone usage while 26% had less Rs150 monthly budget for their mobile phone needs. It also found that 60% of people used more than one handset mainly due to security reasons – mobile phone snatching is rampant in Karachi.
The survey revealed Samsung (34%) was on top followed by iPhone (24%) and Qmobile (21%). On app purchases, it said 16% buy apps regularly while 84% use only free ones.
