Does the Bell Toll for Smartphones? Not Really, But They Have Some Catching Up to Do

It's not as if smartphones were bidding good-bye, but their popularity has been sinking lately.

Thus a report by British international marketing research company, Intersperience.

Why? Simply because the technology hasn't been keeping up with the Joneses, such as tablets, laptops, PCs, and other such paraphernalia.

What's going on? Simple: smartphones' access speed to the Internet hasn't slowed down, but all the other equipment has found ways to speed up. And since we live in the era of institutionalized impatience, the dip in smartphone popularity has been inevitable.

To use Intersperience's numbers: only 39 per cent of those asked rated smartphones as excellent for Internet access. More than 80 per cent said other devices such as laptops, PCs and iPads were much better.

Dusk for smartphones?

Not really, says Intersperience Chief Executive Paul Hudson: "It's not that people are any less keen to use smartphones for Internet access, in fact the opposite is true. They are now so conditioned to expect 24/7 fast Internet connection wherever they are via whatever device they choose that they are increasingly frustrated when smartphones fail to deliver."

So what's wrong? Slow connections, interrupted signals and lack of universal connection, that's what. Besides, Intersperience says, technology-savvy consumers are becoming increasingly critical of applications (a.k.a. apps) that come with limited functionality.

"Usually consumer behaviour and the pace at which people adapt to innovation lags behind the speed of technological change," says Hudson. "Unusually, we have detected evidence that this time consumers are ahead and the technology is failing to fulfill their desire to use smartphones to access a wide range of information on the move."

So what happened? Nothing much, just smartphone customers' habits have changed, that's all. Where they used to access sports box scores, plane, train and bus schedules, weather forecasts at most, they are now using the devices for more complex tasks, including looking up regular web services. Smartphone users' love affair with the devices is still there. Some even sleep with them at night. But the honeymoon seems to be over.

"It's logical to expect some kind of backlash when consumer satisfaction levels fall below 40 per cent," Paul Hudson says. "The question arises of whom consumers will hold to account for poor Internet access performance and which brands will suffer as a result."

It's going to be interesting to see the developments in mobile Internet from a consumer perspective including app preferences, Wi-Fi usage and flexibility of operating systems.

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