Canadians use cell phones to talk, barely anything else

Us Canadians – peacekeepers, caring and loyal to hockey and Tim Horton’s seem to only use our cell phones for actually talking. So 1990’s.

Senior Research Analyst,  Ramon Llamas, of global research firm IDC says “I look at a lot of Joe and Jane consumers on main street anywhere and a lot of them are pretty content with just a regular cellphone. It does what they need it to do and basically that is just to make a phone call,”

Llamas said surveys he has done have repeatedly shown that the No. 1 use for mobile phones is to make calls and not looking at photos, listen to music or read e-mails, surf the web.

Not sure when the survey was done, but we are just getting in the game when it comes to surfing the web and looking at pictures via our cell phones. With our pride and job RIM leading the trend, smartphones have become necessary to business people and affordable to consumers. The introduction of the iPhone and the joy of using touchscreens has peaked our curiosity into what a cellular devise can actually do for us – other than make calls, check e-mail… we can now surf the web (although expensive), take pictures and videos, play games.. and use the tip calculator.

Llamas goes on to inform us that the smartphone market is a minority in Canada: “They’re still going to remain in the minority mainly because these devices, basically, just aren’t for everyone”.  Tell that to Telus who’s latest tagline is “We believe in smartphones for everyone”.

“Voice and text are certainly very popular because, you know what, they’re forms of communication and that’s what people want to do.”

Interesting Canadian stats:

– Canadians also spend a big part of their time talking on cellphones 400 minutes a month, only 2nd to our friends in the USA Americans)- Canada has 20.5 million cellphone subscribers

– Canadian cellphone penetration is 63%

– After talking, texting is the next popular activity on a cellphone.  Canadians send 45.3 million text messages per day