Google Pakistan Digital Media Consumer insights

Pakistani users are shifting their Internet into a new gear in 2014, which will be the year mobile Internet overtakes desktop Internet, according to a new survey sponsored by Google.While desktop is dominant with 91 percent owning a PC at home, 45 percent also own a smartphone or tablet. 18 percent cite the latter as their primary device. Mobile devices are gaining momentum: 86 percent use PCs to access the Internet daily, 77 percent use smartphones, 73 percent use feature phones and 59 percent use tablets daily.

This trend follows a decline in the prices of smartphones and tablets, and anticipated launch of 3G services. Internet-capable feature phones are expected to continue to play an important role, too. An additional factor is the unreliability of the electricity supply which is also helping to promote the usage of tablets and smartphones in Pakistan.

“We think 2014 is the year mobile Internet overtakes desktop Internet in Pakistan. Consumers are really starting to embrace smartphones and tablets,” said Tania Aidrus, Manager for Asian Growth Markets, Google Asia Pacific.

These findings come from a survey of over 1,000 Pakistanis by research firm IDC on behalf of Google. The “Pakistan Digital Consumer Study” conducted earlier this quarter took a look at the life of the connected Pakistani consumer.

Pakistani digital consumers are engaging more with the Internet than ever before: of those surveyed, 70 percent spend time daily on the Internet while 60 percent say it is also where they liked to spend most of their personal time. Watching TV (41 percent) and reading the newspaper (24 percent) combined ranked lower than the Internet.

The study revealed that home is the preferred location for Internet access — even for mobile-only users, who prefer to use their home wi-fi connection. The average hours spent on the Internet are 2.25 hours a day on weekdays and 3 hours a day on weekends.

The top three activities in Pakistan both on desktop and mobile Internet are: social media, email and general search. Interestingly, digital Pakistanis like to learn on their smartphones with educational content coming in fourth. Also popular on smartphones are online banking, researching financial services and investment, and bill payments -- pointing to a near future where digitally literate Pakistanis make the Web work for them.

The main challenge of Internet proliferation in Pakistan are the quality and reliability of connectivity -- including poor speed or bandwidth availability, perceived value-for-money, customer service quality, limited choice of plans and frequency of service interruptions. The unreliability of the power supply is also a factor.

With digital Pakistanis living more of their lives online, the main opportunities are related to the economic contribution of the Internet, especially for small-medium businesses, as well as nutritious and local Internet content: education, research, financial services.

There are over 2 billion Internet users today. Throughout the 2000s, the Internet has been defined by developed countries, but it is now being defined by massive, developing countries like Pakistan.

“Emerging markets are starting from mobile, so if we lower Internet access barriers to consumers, businesses and communities, then we can expect growth far more rapid than what we’re already seeing,” said Aidrus.

As other markets have demonstrated, growth on the Internet encourages growth across the economy. More businesses online means more information for people and incentives to create better networks and content that better reflect local culture and needs. That will make the Internet more valuable and the economy stronger for Pakistan.

About Google Inc.

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Zeffri Yusof

E-mail: zeff@google.com  

How to buy a Perfect Mobile Phone? An Overview

Mobile Phone is the need of the day it keeps people in touch with their loved ones .Nowadays life without cell phone seems incomplete and to stay without it is somewhat impossible. Mobile phones become the addiction of the people. In the present era the mobile phone is not only the used to make calls its more than that it’s a music player, watch, personal digital assistant and much more. Now the question is what type of mobile phone you should buy when you go for buying it. There are many things to take into consideration and you need to be sure about the features you want that suit your lifestyle well.
Different manufacturers across the world are daily introducing the mobile phones with new models and features.
In the purchase of mobile phone Money matters a lot and an expensive, high-end smartphone/mobile phone includes high-end features reliable battery life than a low-end/cheap device. But the expensive mobile phones are not the choice of everyone; lots of people keep an eye on their pockets and find simple and reliable mobile phones to fulfill their needs. So the money matters a lot in the purchase of mobile phone and just buy a cell phone that suits your needs.

Lucky for the consumers there is a lot more choice to select the mobile brand that suits them. As you already knew that all the mobile manufacturer in the whole world try to offer outstanding features and style of the mobile phones. So it's better to do research first and then move on to buy the handset.

The things you keep in mind while buying a mobile phone are,

Battery type, the standby and talk time of the battery.

Mobile phone size: there are two types of sizes of the phone Small and Medium. It’s better to buy and prefer small size of mobile phones because it's easily portable and fits in your pocket.

Dual band: Always prefer a dual band mobile phone. It helps you to use your mobile phone in those countries where GSM services not supported.   

 Internet Supported: You should buy a mobile phone with the support of internet because it’s the era where you need to keep in touch your surroundings. You can use all the Internet applications like web browsing, email, chat, telnet, File Transfer Protocol (FTP) over the mobile network.

 The most important thing before buying a mobile phone is to read the product reviews on the internet. People’s views and comment about the product because it will further clarify your view. 

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