By Natasha Baker
TORONTO, April 2 (Reuters) – Wealthier smartphone users are
less likely to play games or tweet and will opt for news, travel
or finance apps, according to a new study.
The research by The Luxury Institute focused on app usage
among wealthy consumers, who earn an annual income of $150,000
or more. They tend to be older, with a mean age of 52.
“As you get older and have family and significant others,
aging parents, and a lot more assets and investments, you’re
going to need apps for far more relevant things than playing
games and chatting with your peers,” said Milton Pedraza, CEO of
The Luxury Institute.
The findings are in contrast to smartphone usage as a whole,
which research firm Nielsen showed is dominated by games and
social networking categories.
The wealthy use Facebook and Angry Birds, the two most
downloaded apps of 2011, but overall, higher-income consumers
use apps for entertainment far less than the average smartphone
user, according to Pedraza.
While wealthy consumers are only slightly more likely to
have a smartphone than the general population, Nielsen said the
breakdown of devices owned differs considerably.
Forty-five percent of wealthy smartphone users own an
iPhone, followed 35 percent with an Android device and a quarter
who had a Blackberry. But Nielsen found that overall Android had
46 percent of market share, followed by the iPhone with 30
percent and Blackberry with 15 percent.
“Google’s strategy with Android is that they have multiple
manufacturing partners,” explained Jonathan Carson, the CEO of
digital at Nielsen. “There’s a broader choice with Android in
the number of devices, and that may offer some opportunities for
lower-end consumers.”
He added that the iPhone has always done quite well with
high-income consumers.
Carson also noted an upswing in the number of smartphone
users adopting iPhones within the last few months, which he
attributes to the iPhone 4S, and Apple’s strategy to keep
lower-priced models on the market at lower-price points to
appeal to a wider range of consumers.
The study also showed that more than 80 percent of affluent
consumers have downloaded apps and many have opted for paid apps
and in-app upgrades. But on average, wealthier consumers
download about half as many apps as the average consumer.
Among wealthy smartphone users, 67 percent have used their
mobile device to shop for products or services online with
tickets, gift cards, food or electronics the most popular
purchases.
“There are a large number of people that still love to shop
in the store, and I don’t think it’s only older people,”
Pedraza said, adding apps can augment the in-store experience.
The marketing firm Plastic Mobile polled 603 consumers whose
mean income was $295,000 and net worth was $2.8 million for The
Luxury Institute study.
(Editing by Patricia Reaney)
