The Philippines? I will not be surprised if a new born Filipino has a cell phone in his palm.

Apple


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Pinoys lead the world in use of phone features
Manila Bulletin
Manila Bulletin - Sunday, September 20



A new report by global market research firm Synovate has found that Filipinos lead the way in the use of many mobile features among 11 countries covered by the survey.

Aside from being the world's heaviest senders of SMS or text messages, Filipinos can now claim another __title__ in the mobile space: Most savvy users of a mobile phone.

In the study, 87 percent of the local population use the phone's alarm clock as against the global average of 67 percent. There were 8,000 total respondents.

Sixty-three percent of Filipinos also play games regularly, 48 percent listen to or download music, 44 percent watch video clips, and 13 percent even watch TV (versus an overall 5 percent).

Carole Sarthou, Synovate's managing director for the Philippines, said in a statement that the high numbers of the country can be attributed to ''cultural'' and ''circumstantial'' factors.

''It's part of the national psyche to love social connections, music and entertainment. How the Filipino love affair with the mobile is different compared to developing nations is that, in many cases, a mobile is all people have,'' she said.

''It's the only way they can listen to music, the only way they can play games and the only way they can communicate from afar. Many Filipinos use this instead of the Internet and computers and it's not surprising that it has become such a multi-purpose, multi-tasking tool,'' Sarthou added.

The survey also found that the Philippines was the closest market to being split on the issue when asked, ''If lost, which would be harder to replace... your mobile phone or wallet/purse?''

Respondents from the Philippines said 47 percent of them said their mobile phone would be harder to replace while 52 percent chose the wallet/purse.

Synovate's Sarthou said this result shows Filipinos would find the mobile difficult, or even impossible, to replace.

''The connection to other people stops when the phone is lost. It's a storehouse for photos and videos, but most vital are contact details. Filipinos seek constant connection,'' she said.

The survey also showed the Philippines coming out on top in using text in conveying potentially bad news:

• 12 percent have broken up with someone via text, led by 23 percent of Filipinos and 22 percent of both Malaysians and Russians.
• 35 percent agreed that they have hidden behind text to say no or send a difficult message, led by 49 percent of Filipinos, 48 percent of Malaysians and 47 percent of Singaporeans. Least likely to hide behind SMS are Canadians (79 percent disagree) and Americans (71 percent).
• 31 percent agreed they have lied about why they were running late or where they are, led by 57 percent of Filipinos and 44 percent of Singaporeans.

Least likely to lie via text (or so they say) are the Dutch (84 percent disagree) and the Americans (79 percent).

Synovate's global head of media, Steve Garton, said mobile phones have become so ubiquitous that by last year, more human beings owned one than did not.

''In the Philippines and Africa,'' millions of dollars have been transacted via mobile. The telco has effectively become a bank, allowing even those in rural areas to send and receive mobile money.

This is just one of the huge benefits which are changing lives in developing nations,'' he said.

Not only this but the price of cell phones are ridiculously low here Vodacom in South Africa has the most subscribers of all the providers in Africa and they are operating in most countries in Africa with monthly turnover of US$ 3 billion. Now back to the Philippines, the population here is 99 million people and in SA only 50 million people. I reckon that at least 50% use cell phones here.
Love to know what Smart turns over every month, but not the nicest people i've had many problems with my load disappearing and SMART is always right they're never wrong so now i use Smart and Globe in my phone. Next year i will change over to GLOBE with voice and data they're really nice people

I prefer GLOBE.
But I am getting confused with the prepaids services. unlimited text. unlimited calls. calls at night, no expiration loads, and so on with their almost every day new changes of prepaid services.


The government is planning to hack taxes from text messaging from these networks. we are known to be " widest text users of the world". Another source of fortune?????

Smart don't even reply to my e-mails anymore, guess they're not that user friendly lol. But still use them even though they steal some of my load when i apply for unlimited text service, thought i would never need a cell phone here for texting but it seems that i send 500 texts a month lol
I would love to use GLOBE because they are user friendly and they have some good services but all my friends here have Smart

firefly wrote:

I would love to use GLOBE because they are user friendly and they have some good services but all my friends here have Smart

Fire, I am using GLOBE.

There are times I can't really reply because daughters load was turned to unlimited text features. she send text to lots of her friends.
Now I see to it that I have extra loads.

In the Philippines where modern/modernized Filipinos reside, the use of cellphones is ordinarily widespread regardless of the status in life. Prep-schoolers now use cellphones. That's why a lot of networks appear here and compete with each other.

jeanlery2010 wrote:
In the Philippines where modern/modernized Filipinos reside, the use of cellphones is ordinarily widespread regardless of the status in life. Prep-schoolers now use cellphones. That's why a lot of networks appear here and compete with each other.

It is also becoming the easiest gift to think about giving on any occasions.