WhatsApp displaces traditional telephony on the smartphone
A representative study by Quickline shows: The majority of people no longer use what was once intended for making phone calls.
The smartphone is mainly used to communicate via WhatsApp (70.0%) or to surf the internet (52.8%). Fewer and fewer smartphone owners (39.7%) still use them for conventional phone calls these days. Visiting social media platforms (39.2%) and taking photos (33.0%) follow close behind. Women (76.4 percent) in particular communicate more frequently via WhatsApp than men (63.7 percent). However, men use their phones more often (42.0%) than women (37.4%).
There are major differences in smartphone use between age groups, with one exception: regardless of age, WhatsApp is by far the most popular. 85.7% of 14-29 year olds, 68.5% of 30-49 year olds and an equally impressive 57.5% of 50-65 year olds use WhatsApp as their most popular means of communication on their smartphone. WhatsApp has become indispensable, especially for young women up to the age of 30. 91.6% of them use WhatsApp, which is around three times as often as for conventional phone calls. Younger women are also frequently found on social media platforms (67.4%) and on the internet (68.9%). However, they hardly ever send text messages via SMS (19.7%).
Of all women and men surveyed, 14-29 year olds specifically use new media. WhatsApp (85.7 percent), surfing the internet (69.2 percent), visiting social media platforms (59.0 percent), watching films on YouTube (37.3 percent) and taking photos (34.0 percent) are ahead of making traditional phone calls (31.1 percent) and sending text messages (21.6 percent). The figures are different for the over-30s, for whom the tide is turning towards making conventional phone calls (43.0%) and sending text messages (29.2%). Text messages are still used very frequently by the over-60s (41.3%) to exchange texts.
"Although most smartphone owners today prefer to write messages and send photos or films via Messenger, traditional phone calls are here to stay. Because when things are really urgent or need to be done quickly, a call is still a matter of course," says Yann Steulet, Managing Director Residential at Quickline, assessing the future of making calls with a smartphone.
About Quickline
The Quickline Group is united with 23 independent network operators in the Quickline network and supplies around 400,000 households in the Swiss cable network market. Internet, TV/radio, landline and mobile telephony and cloud services are marketed jointly under the "Quickline" brand.
