Majority of smartphone holders use messaging apps — survey

AMMAN — A new survey of Jordan’s smartphone and mobile application users revealed that around 31 per cent of respondents are unaware of the operating system of their smartphone.

Of the total smartphones in Jordan, about 77 per cent have Android operating systems. Other popular operating systems are iOS, Windows, Symbian and BlackBerry.

The survey, conducted recently by the Arab Advisers Group, showed that mobile application users constitute some 98 per cent of total smartphone users in Jordan.

Smartphone penetration in Jordan currently stands at more than 60 per cent and the figure is expected to rise as prices of such devices are dropping, according to Arab Advisers figures.

“The survey revealed high popularity of messaging applications in Jordan; 98.8 per cent of mobile app users reported using them, while 86.3 per cent of mobile app users reported using social media applications,” a statement quoted Dalia Haddad, senior research analyst at Arab Advisers Group, as saying.

Mobile penetration in Jordan reached 147 per cent at the end of September last year with some 11 million mobile subscriptions, according to official figures.

“Mobile app users reported a decrease in SMS usage due to reliance on messaging applications,” Haddad said, adding that 37.3 per cent of smartphone users who are aware of Fourth Generation/long-term evolution (LTE) technology are not willing to pay additional fees for faster Internet.

LTE features higher data transfer speeds and capacities, providing up to 150 megabytes per second in Internet speed.

The survey probed the respondents’ adoption and habits of using smartphone applications including messaging, calling, gaming, social media, video applications and photo editing. 

It was conducted based on the demographic breakdown in Jordan for the population above 15 years old.

“Respondents were randomly called through randomly generated numbers. The survey results encompass answers from 832 respondents,” the statement said.