One million people use smartphones

The GfK Group's regional telecommunications survey covering fifteen countries shows that Hungary is in the second half of the field in terms of both mobile phone use and smartphone penetration. We are lagging behind the average of the Central and Eastern European region in terms of these two indicators, if not significantly. 

Mobile phone use: Hungary in the second half of the field

A total of 15 million 353 people over the age of fifteen live in the 477 countries sampled. According to the survey, in the summer of 2011, 88 percent of the adult population in the region had a self-funded (i.e., non-corporate) subscription. This means that in these fifteen countries, it is estimated that 311 million adults had at least one monthly or prepaid subscription. With a penetration of 85,3 percent, Hungary lags slightly behind the regional average and is roughly on a par with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ukraine, Romania and Kazakhstan. Slovenia, the Baltic countries and the Czech Republic are at the forefront of mobile phone use.  

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Smartphones in the middle of the field

We are slightly better in the rankings when we look at the popularity of smartphones among mobile phone users. While 14,2 percent of the region's mobile phone users have already been attracted to smartphones, this proportion in Hungary is barely 13 percent lower - and with this data we are already in the middle of the region. In this respect, too, Slovenia and Lithuania are at the top of the rankings, but Turkey's passion for smartphones is certainly noteworthy. In Slovenia and Turkey, one in four mobile users has already switched to using smartphones. The 22 percent smartphone penetration is therefore a very attractive competitive field 
offers to mobile phone service providers in the country and handset manufacturers with a significant market share in the country.

The future of the smartphone market: unfavorable macroeconomic climate

The “misfortune” of otherwise dynamic developments in smartphones is that they were born in a very unfavorable macroeconomic period. The international credit crisis, low economic growth and strongly restrained retail spending are not conducive to further expansion of the smartphone market. "In our opinion, however, additional areas will be conquered, albeit slowly, but from traditional mobile phones, but the pan-European macroeconomic environment will not accelerate this process yet," said János Bacher, GfK Hungária's Customer Relations Director. “Domestic mobile operators are moving in a particularly difficult competitive environment, as the desire to buy smartphones is the most restrained in Ukraine and Hungary. In contrast, Turkey, which is already a great smartphone lover, is in a good position in this respect as well, ”the expert added. 

Source: gfk.hu