A survey for Microsoft’s Mobile Communications Business conducted by Synovate revealed 48 percent of Australians use their mobile phone while in the lavatory.
However, Australians are not the highest users of mobile phones in the bathroom with Taiwan and China having the highest incidences of mobile phone use in the lavatory, at 68 percent and 66 percent respectively
Of the occasions surveyed, the four most popular mobile phone usage occasions in Australia are while eating a meal with other people (80 percent), while driving (62 percent), while using the loo (48 percent) and while trying to sleep (48 percent).
Younger Australian mobile phone users (aged 18-30) are more likely to use a mobile phone in a library, at the cinema or during a concert than those over 30 years of age.
Just over 50% of Australians agree that mobile phones should be allowed during flights, with most citing informing friends/family on ground of flight changes as the main reason for switching their phone on in the air.
Australians mostly agree that children under the age of 12 should not be given a mobile phone (73 percent), and the rest of APAC responded similarly (74 percent).
The survey also found that Australians are open to using mobile phones to manage their personal relationships. In fact, in taking relationships to the next level, more Australian males (24 percent) than females (11% percent) think it’s acceptable to propose using their mobile phones.
Other findings include:
- People in Sydney (43 percent) are less likely to check their partner’s SMS/caller list than people in Melbourne (52 percent).
- Married females (58 percent) are more likely to check their partner’s mobile phone messages and SMS/caller list than married men (43 percent).
- 57 percent of Australians have flirted with their spouse/partner using SMS/MM/IM over mobile phone and 30 percent have flirted with someone other than their spouse/partner.
- 25 percent of Australians would use GPS to track their spouse or partner’s whereabouts.
- 13 percent of Australians are likely to use their mobile phones during extremely intimate moments.
- The survey also revealed consumer preference for different types of mobile phones. Australians, compared to other markets, prefer the more traditional numeric keypad (38 percent) while the Chinese (59 percent), Indians (59 percent) and Taiwanese (63 percent) are predominantly in favour of touch screen phones. Up to 36 percent of Australians preferred touch screen phones.
When it comes to a mobile phone purchase, the following factors rank high with Australians in the decision-making process:
- Functionality, rather than the look of the phone, was stated as the highest overall factor when choosing a mobile phone in Australia (55 percent), while most other countries across APAC placed higher importance on cost.
- 54 percent of Australians site cost as the second most important factor when deciding which phone to purchase.
- Australians rank ease-of-use (44 percent) as the third most important factor when buying a device.
