As the world marks the International Women’s Day today, Ericsson has come out to recognize the contribution of women through its recently released report titled “10 Consumer trends in 2013” which states that “women drive the global smartphone market.”
The consumer trends report states that women have been heavy users of communications services on mobile phones for years – and continue to lead many communication and daily life related behaviors on smartphones.
“On a global scale, female smartphone owners are more active than men when using SMS. 77 percent of women send and receive photos, 59 per cent use social networking, 24 percent use apps to check in at physical locations and 17 percent redeem coupons using their smartphones,” it notes, adding that women are especially heavy SMS users in markets such as Russia, Egypt, South Africa and Turkey.
According to the report, the women are recognized as leaders of the send/receive photo trend in developed Asia, with 87 percent of women doing this compared to 79 percent of men while in Western Europe, a full 60 percent of female smartphone owners use social networking, compared to just 52 percent of men.
Today, African women are making significant advancements that are fast catching up on male domination in the technology scene. Women tend to be the “gatekeepers for new technology” by being the first to adopt it and then leading their family and friends in doing the same.
Various studies have reported that men and women use ICTs differently, e.g., in Senegal, women use ICTs to access information while men prefer communication with friends and family members. For mobile telephony, GSMA has estimated that closing the mobile gender gap would increase revenues for mobile operators by US$13 billion73.
A quarter of North American women check in to different locations, more so than in other regions. Latin American women also use coupons more than men, although overall use is lower than the global average. By integrating communication and daily activities with their smartphone usage, women continue to drive broad mass market smartphone adoption.
The 10 consumer trends report in 2013” report can be downloaded here.