Research company comScore has published smartphone uptake figures for Europe. It says the UK market grew by 70% in the last year to more than 11 million smartphone users. That splits into a 76% growth in smartphone users spending less than £35 a month; 60% growth in higher-priced monthly tariffs.
Italy has the largest number of smartphone subscribers overall - 15 million – but only saw 11% growth in the last 12 months.
In the five countries surveyed, Italy had the highest proportion of smartphone users – 32% – followed by Spain with 28.3%, the UK with 22.9%, Germany with 16.5% and finally France with 15.2%.
Alistair Hill, senior mobile analyst at comScore, said "Smartphones are generally seen as luxury devices that come with big price tags and high monthly tariffs, yet the largest segment of the market and the one demonstrating greatest momentum is actually the low to mid tier. The growth in these tiers suggests that as smartphones become more affordable to the majority of European consumers, their proliferation will increase considerably and lead to a surge in mobile content and data consumption. Such market dynamics offer substantial opportunity for different players in the mobile ecosystem - from operators and manufacturers to publishers and advertisers - and underscore the importance of competing for customers now to engender long-term loyalty."