eMarketer: Smartphone users accounted for three-quarters of the UK population in 2016

Smartphone users in the UK will exceed 50% by the end of 2012

The UK leads the world in mobile users and mobile advertising. eMarketer estimates that UK advertisers spend more on mobile internet than other countries. Portio Research also predicts that smartphones are driving this trend based on the continued growth of the UK smartphone market.

In January this year, the market research agency estimated that there were 8.3 million mobile users in the UK at the end of 2012, of which 3.6 million were smartphone users and 4.7 million were non-smartphone users. Its market penetration rate reached 130%, which shows that the number of mobile phone users is unlikely to increase, and instead it will be replaced by the conversion from feature phones to smartphones. Portio gave a chart showing the growth of smartphones and the corresponding decline of feature phones in the next few years.

The study found that these two trends will drive the UK smartphone penetration rate to over 50%. eMarketer made a slightly conservative estimate that the UK smartphone penetration rate was 45.5% at the end of 2012 and will reach 55% by 2014.

Portio Research predicts that by 2016, three quarters of mobile phone users in the UK will be smartphone users. Smartphones will become so common in the mobile advertising environment that by that time there will be 6.3 million smartphone users in the UK and 2.1 million non-smartphone users.

According to eMarkete's forecast, the UK's smartphone penetration rate will reach 78% of mobile phone users in 2016, continuing to maintain the highest smartphone penetration rate and leading position in Western Europe. In 2016, the UK's smartphone penetration rate will exceed that of the United States, with only South Korea, Japan and Australia having a higher proportion of smartphone users.

199it compilation and analysis: wiky Huang Wenjie @eMarketer