Research points to Kiwis becoming more connected

Find it hard to imagine life without your smartphone? Well consumer research shows you're not alone as new survey results from 2degrees give a glimpse into the changing lifestyle habits of Kiwis and their smartphones.

2degrees last month conducted a survey via Facebook of 357 smartphone users to find out more about the emerging smartphone habits of Kiwis. The results pointed to mobiles becoming a key part of people's lives with 85% of respondents agreeing that having a smartphone had changed the way they lived their day-to-day life and 82% saying they would never leave home without their smartphone.

So how many devices do Kiwis have already? 99% of respondents have at least two wireless networked devices (eg. a mobile phone and a tablet or laptop). Breaking that down, 42% of respondents have one mobile phone and one tablet, 24% of respondents have three devices. The survey's most connected respondent had 12 devices connected to the internet.

In addition almost 60% said they spent more time on their phone compared to six months ago and 65% spend more than two hours a day on their smartphone.

Voice calling and Maps/Navigation were the most commonly used features on smartphones with Facebook the most popular social network, used by 93% of respondents, with 36% checking Facebook more than 10 times a day.

When it comes to returning calls, most Kiwis prefer to keep their partner happy above others when given a scenario of four missed calls from their boss, Mum, partner and friend, and asked which they'd return first. 55% rated their partner, 23% rated their Mum, 20% rated their boss with only 2% saying their friend.

The research comes as global experts predict that by 2020 we'll all have 5-10 connected/networked devices ¿ from glasses to watches, to shoes, to cars, with some speculating as many as 100 billion devices world-wide. 2degrees CEO Stewart Sherriff says: "It's all about IOT or ¿Internet of Things' right now, which is adding connectivity and intelligence to just about every device. 2020 may sound a way off but 'wearable technology' is already here, we're already selling smartwatches in every one of our 2degrees stores on high streets nationwide. Globally, 64 million smartwatches are expected to be sold by 2016 and forecasts are that the ¿Internet of Things' will become a multi-billion dollar industry."

84% of respondents were aged between 18-50 years old