In 2019 Deloitte’s Global Mobile Consumer Survey polled more than 44,000 adults in 28 countries about their mobile habits, devices, and preferences. Just over 2,000 Canadians across the country were part of this year’s global survey, and we’ve noted the top five trends that stand out for Canadian consumers. These are only selected highlights; the full report contains much more information, all sliced and diced by age, gender, income, and region. To see the full report or have a customized deep dive on the data, please email tmtcanada@deloitte.ca
For now, though, we offer a peek at the five top trends that our research shows are the most important or newsworthy:
The global report is also available at: View the report
1: Steady as she goes…except for smartphones
Access to consumer devices is generally flat compared to 2018, with most categories up or down a couple of percentage points. The remarkable exception is smartphones, up a whopping 5 percentage points in the last year to 83 percent in 2019, and up from 71 percent in 2015. Canada is a bit of a global outlier: most other developed countries have seen smartphone adoption plateau. In the United Kingdom, for example, the number was flat in 2019 at 88 percent, which suggests there may still be room for the Canadian number to grow. The biggest lift in the Canadian jump came from those 55 to 75 years of age: at 69 percent, smartphone adoption for that group was up six points year over year.
2: Bling your phone: Smartphone accessories are huge
One of our upcoming 2020 TMT Predictions will be that the global smartphone accessory market will be over US$75 billion. Canadians are doing their part to contribute to that. Earphones, cases, screen protectors, and memory cards are the hottest items, with Apple owners more likely to have accessories than Samsung owners (except for memory cards). As you might expect, age is a big factor: 18-to 24-year-olds have about eight accessories on average, compared to about four for the 65-to 75-year-old set. That’s driven by how people use their smartphones: young people are much more likely to watch a lot of short videos and listen to music daily. Music drives headphone sales, and videos drain batteries, so young people are also much more likely to buy power banks.
3: Canadians’ favourite phone brand is Apple. Sort of
Across all Canadian age groups, from 18 to 75, Apple (40 percent) has a healthy 5-percentage point lead over Samsung in the smartphone horse race in 2019. But that number is an average, and a misleading one: for those aged 18 to 24, Apple is massively out in front (a 43-point lead, 62 percent to 19 percent) and even for the 25-to 34-year-olds, Apple has a 12-point lead. It’s tied with Samsung for the hearts of the 35-44s. But for each of the 45-54, 55-64, and 65-75-decade breaks, Samsung has the lead (by varying amounts, but up to 12 percentage points.) Talk about a mobile generation gap! It isn’t just age, it’s also gender: although Canadian men are equally likely to choose Apple or Samsung, women here prefer Apple by 14 points, 45 percent to 31 percent. There are regional effects, too: In BC and the Prairies, Apple is ahead of Samsung 42 percent to 30 percent, while in Atlantic Canada it’s the exact opposite, with Apple trailing 30 percent to Samsung’s 42 percent.
