Network expansion crucial as smart-phone penetration doubles among urban Thais
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The number of smart-phone users in Thailand more than doubled to 36 per cent of urban consumers in the first quarter, resulting in mobile-phone operators having to place more emphasis on network expansion in order to serve rapidly rising data-usage demand
The data were derived from a survey conducted by Ericsson ConsumerLab on 1,000 respondents in Thailand during the first three months of the year.
While 36 per cent of respondents said they currently had a smart phone – compared to 17 per cent in the same period last year – the overall response indicated the level of penetration would increase to 46 per cent in the next six months.
Ericsson ConsumerLab’s analysis is based on an online panel study of 1,000 urban residents aged 16-60. It forms part of a survey of 43 countries, covering a total of 38,000 people, carried out by research company TNS.
The doubling of smart-phone penetration in the Kingdom is the highest among the countries covered by the survey.
The key purposes for using a smart-phone in Thailand were browsing the Internet – 69 per cent of respondents, against 58 per cent last year – followed by social networking (65 per cent) and instant messaging (57 per cent).
The number of respondents citing SMS use fell from 52 per cent last year to 44 per cent this time, which is markedly different from the situation in other countries, where SMS is still the main driver for smart-phone usage.
“This reflects the fact that most countries offer free SMS, while Thailand still charges for SMS services,” said Bunyati Kirdiyom, head of communications and regulatory affairs at Ericsson Thailand.
He said the survey results demonstrated the need for all mobile operators to put more investment into their networks in order to achieve better performance.
Recently, Ericsson clinched a network-expansion deal from True Corp’s Real Future to further expand Real Future’s wireless broadband network across Thailand.
The Ericsson research data from 2013 shows that among urban consumers in Thailand, smart-phone penetration increased from 17 per cent in 2012 to 36 per cent at the end of the first quarter this year, while tablet penetration rose from 2 per cent to 7 per cent in the same period.
One noticeable change is the jump in applications usage from 40 per cent in 2012 to 57 per cent in 2013, which ranks Thailand 23rd in apps usage amongst the 43 countries included in this year’s analysis.
At the same time, there is an increase in smart-phone usage for Internet access, social networking, instant messaging and video streaming among smart-phone users.
“If we look at smart-phone usage, we can say that Thais are increasingly using their devices for different data services. Respondents surveyed said they are using their smart phone for apps, to send and receive instant messages, view video clips, and keep up with friends in their social networks,” said Afrizal Abdul Rahim, Ericsson ConsumerLab head for Southeast Asia and Oceania.
The top three reasons for downloading apps among urban Thais are to have one that is featured in an app store, to keep in touch with people more easily, and to try something new, he said.
“Internet surfing, the ability to use whenever and wherever I am, and keeping up to date with developments are the main reasons for smart-phone purchase, whereas the key motivating factors for tablet purchase are Internet surfing, gaming and entertainment,” he added.
Among Thai urban consumers, tablet penetration grew more than threefold from 2012 to 2013.
“From this study, we can see that Thailand also has among the highest growth rate in tablet penetration in the region,” said Rahim.
Bunyati said the findings on smart-phone penetration for Thailand tied in with Ericsson’s global findings in its June 2013 “Mobility Report”.
Worldwide smart-phone subscriptions in 2018 are now forecast to reach 4.5 billion, compared to its November 2012 forecast of 3.3 billion, due to a notable increase in the number of smart-phone subscriptions in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East/Africa regions.
Around 50 per cent of all mobile phones sold in the first quarter of this year were smart phones, compared to around 40 per cent for the whole of last year.
“Traffic in mobile networks continues to grow at an impressive rate worldwide. While voice remains a cornerstone of most operators’ service offerings, it is data growth, driven by the uptake of smart devices and apps, which is having the most significant impact on networks globally,” the report said.
