Passive Behavior Analytics
The Cost of Travelling
The use of smartphones abroad has become more prominent with consumers over the last few years and mobile network providers are constantly finding more affordable ways for their customers to enjoy the technology they are accustomed to using back home.
A variety of published horror stories of people returning home to extortionate bills has led to somewhat of a taboo on mobile use abroad, but slowly this concept is being overturned by the industry. By allowing users to pay a set fee for every day’s use rather than charging per megabyte of data use has simplified the billing process and allows consumers to keep track of how much they will be charged.
It is important for network providers to understand the mobile consumer behaviour when abroad so they can continue to improve their roaming services and products.
Modes of Transport
This summer, three RealityMine colleagues travelled to Europe on their holidays and we thought it would be interesting to see how they used their devices abroad by using our mobile analysis product. Below we see the app data collected for each journey depicting each colleague’s location at various times.
Chris drove to Spain (orange line), Garry & Becca drove to the south of France (turquoise line) and Dave flew to Berlin (light blue line). The method of transport and routes can actually be determined from the mobile analytics. The two car journeys follow major road routes and you can also see that The Eurotunnel was used for both. You can see that Dave flew back via Frankfurt airport and stopped in Dusseldorf on the outbound flight. It is interesting to note that Garry & Becca’s outbound drive was directed by their sat-nav which took them on a longer route than their manually navigated return journey.
How do we use our device abroad?
We can use the app data to view the apps used by each colleague whilst on holiday and get an idea of how they use technology when abroad.
Chris, Becca & Garry all used Facebook which is an ideal way to post holiday pictures and keep in contact with friends back home. Becca and Garry used email as their preferred method of communication, as did Dave. Everyone used their device to play on games to some extent either to kill time at the airport or to make a long road journey seem shorter.
From the app analysis we can see other apps being used which really help when on holiday. Camera and gallery apps mean you can instantly view holiday photos, CityMaps and Google Maps help navigate new cities and various weather apps mean the user can always make the most of the sun!
If we categorise these apps it is evident that mobile use has become as much of a feature as it is back home.
Social networking, communication and browsing form part of peoples holiday as they keep in touch with friends, look up information about their holiday location and read the news. Easy to understand billing and ease of internet access have changed the way, and the amount, people use their mobiles abroad.
RealityMine’s tools provide the capability to look at a users passive behavior, and build deep insights into what drives behavior.
