NEWS13 September 2012

Surveys on mobiles ‘double', finds eDigital

UK

UK— The volume of surveys carried out on smartphones and tablets more than doubled between 2011 and 2012, according to eDigital Research’s own numbers.

The firm said that over the course of 12 months, the number of its surveys that were completed by mobile devices rose from 4.2% to 9.2%, and a supporting eDigital survey found that 82% of smartphone and tablet owners said that they expected to take surveys on their mobile devices in the future.

Derek Ecclestone (pictured), the firm’s head of research, said: “Through our device detection technology, we were already seeing a growing number of people accessing our surveys from their mobile devices and therefore decided to take a deeper look at the preferences and expectations of mobile respondents.”

One stat thrown up by the survey was frustration with surveys that rely on third-party software, such as Flash, with 15% of respondents saying they had been disappointed that they were unable to take part in research because they did not have the required plug-ins. This is especially the case with Apple iPhones, which are not compatible with Flash.

James Verrinder

UK

@RESEARCH LIVE

3 Comments

charles@easyinsites.com

12 years ago

e-digital's research is consistent with research we at EasyInsites along with Cint conducted earlier this year and reported at conferences such as CASRO Tech in New York City in May and soon at ESOMAR 3D in Amsterdam this November. It is good to see another online research agency vocalising the fact that this change is happening and pointing out that there is an expectation that respondents will increasingly have that the surveys they participate in will work properly on whatever device they choose to use to access them. At EasyInsites, we optimise every survey we script & host across all devices, including smartphones and tablets and of course this means not using flash as a means to create interactive question types given the limitations clearly identified and articulated by Apple product users.

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Timothy Wayne George

12 years ago

Surveys are important regardless of what the device that is being used. Plug-ins are always a problem, and you just have to work around it. Technology keeps changing so fast, that the consumer cannot keep up with it. Companies have to try to be as consumer friendly as possible if they want to win their business.

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Ethan Settel

12 years ago

Very interesting, are these users in the UK only? At Jana we've noticed that for our users in Brazil, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, and the Philippines an average of 47.5% complete surveys on their mobile phones versus a laptop or desktop PC. Perhaps this demonstrates the propensity for internet users in emerging markets to use their mobile phones to access the web rather than computers.

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