Highlights:

Digital Usage
 

• Most device access has remained relatively stable overall in terms of penetration. After a number of years of consistent penetration, the Smartphone is up 2% to 96% and a there has been a significant increase in Wearables increasing from 50% to 67%, along with Smart TVs increasing from 66% to 71% in the past 12 months.
• Apple and Samsung are now the equally as popular as each other with 38% each, and Apple been the most popular with the 18-34 year old group.
• The majority of adults (67%) wish they spent less time on devices, up significantly from 51% in the prior year's survey, with 18–44-year-olds being more likely than other age groups to say so.
• Three quarter of respondents use their smartphone as soon as they wake up (up from 59% in the previous year). This is highest among 18-34 year olds (71%) and among women (60% of them say so compared to 43% of men).
• 65% of phone owners look at their phone within 15 minutes or less after waking up (2022: 57%) and 36% (2022: 36%) state that they look at their phone at least 50 times a day.
  

Smartphone

The smartphone is the preferred device for banking, online search, browsing, playing games and shopping, while TV is preferred for long-form content, such as movies.

Colm McDonnell, Partner and Head of Technology, Media, and Telecommunications, said:

The Smartphone - the goldilocks device

• Having remained stagnant for the last two years, smartphone access has increased to 96%, up 2 percentage points on last year, the smartphone is truly the device we cannot live without. Access to the smartphone far outreaches access to the “old reliables” such as the laptop at 82% and tablet at 61%. It also has consistently high penetration across all ages, unlike other devices which vary widely. In the current year, the smartphone is now the preferred device for banking, online search, browsing, playing games and shopping, while TV remains the preferred for long-form content, such as movies.
• How we use our smartphone has been evolving over the last number of years, as technology advances and the digitalization of our daily lives continues. The sheer fact that 96% of people have one means that our dependence has increased beyond the traditional calls, messaging and emails; we now use it to pay for goods and services in-store through digital wallets, hold tickets or boarding passes while travelling, accessing online accounts through multi-factor authentication and as digital keys to access offices, cars, and houses. Currently the EU are looking at rolling out digital driver's licenses.
• Based on Deloitte’s TMT Predictions, in 2024, the smartphone is expected to further consolidate its status as the most successful consumer device, as it’s used increasingly to prove identity, utilising built-in fast and secure biometric authentication capabilities. Over the coming years, the volume of transactions authenticated by smartphone may grow to hundreds of trillions of usages per year, with smartphones usurping physical keys and passwords alike. When asked for the first time this year a third of respondents would like to see their smartphones to maintain passport and driver license details instead of the physical documents.
  

Is our usage concerning?

• We continue to use our smartphones a lot, with 98% using it every day, up 5 percentage points in 2022, with 99% of women doing so compared to 97% of men. 74% of respondents agree that they use their smartphone as soon as they wake up, up from 59% on prior year and 65% doing so within the first 15 minutes of waking up (57% in 2022) and a third using it during mealtime. Similarly, half of respondents tend to stay awake later than planned because they are using devices into the night, rising to 69% (2022: 62%) and 68% (2022: 64%) of those between 18-24 years old and 25-34 years old, respectively.
• 36% of respondents check their phone at least 50 times a day, with 16% checking it at least 100 times a day. The smartphone is well and truly ingrained in our daily lives but potentially impact on our social interactions and sleep.
• Two-thirds of respondents (67%) however wish they spent less time on devices, rising to 74% for women compared to 54% for men and the 18 to 34 years continue to express the most concern.