In the second of RealityMine’s Consumer Insights series, we look at how our passively collected data illustrates how age impacts on the way in which we use our mobile devices. The data shows that younger and older age groups do use their phones differently, but not necessarily in the way we would expect!
Our findings demonstrate that, during an average day, 18 to 35 year olds use their mobile devices more than people aged 35+, aside from between 4am and 6am, when the 35+ age group has a slightly higher usage.
From the passive data collected we can also see that, even though people aged 35+ use their mobile devices less, the peaks and troughs are roughly the same, with three exceptions:
– 9am is a large peak for 35+, but a trough for 18-35
– 11am is a peak for 35+, and again a trough for 18-35
– 7pm is a peak for 18-35, but a trough for 35+
With behaviourally triggered surveys we could dig deeper and find out why these variances occur.
The size of the circle represents the proportion of the overall use for the apps in the each category across the panel.
The percentage split is between the two age brackets, for app use in that category.
Our data also shows that the methods of communication used by the two age groups are different : 18-35 year olds are choosing to communicate by methods including phones, SMS or Whatsapp etc, whereas for people aged 35+ the preferred method is email. This could be because the two age groups are using their mobile devices for different purposes, with the assumption being that the younger age group uses them largely for social reasons and the older age group mainly for work. Again, behaviourally triggered surveys could confirm this.
We looked further into the usage data to see which app categories were being used by each age group. We found that, unsurprisingly, 18-35 year olds use social networking apps more than people aged 35+, BUT for both age groups this was the highest app category for mobile device use.
We also found some interesting stats in the app usage: the 35+ age group uses the camera app and also Cloud Storage more, but 18-35 year olds look at the photo app more often. Does this suggest that the older age group is taking photos and then downloading them straightaway to a large screen device that enables them to be viewed more easily?
Finally our passively collected data shows that shopping on mobile devices is more popular with people aged 35+ (57% to 43%), but that 18-35 year olds do more mobile-based betting/gaming (76.2% to 23.8%).
From this data we can surmise that the different age groups do use their phones differently, but not necessarily as we would expect them to. It also goes to show how passive mobile behaviour analytics can help us to build a much clearer picture than would be possible by simply asking people questions.
*Analysis based on research carried out amongst 426 male and female panellists, aged between 18 and 65, across a 4 week period. RealityMine used mobile passive behaviour tools to monitor participants’ usage.
