The top three uses of mobile phones are staying in contact with family and friends (66 per cent of people aged 40 and over), social media (54 per cent), and banking, budgeting, and managing finances (one in three), to new research by Vodafone Ireland shows. The survey was commissioned among 500 mobile phone users aged 40 and over.
In 2001, voice calls were the main purpose of mobile phones and SMS or text messaging was emerging as a key feature with limited data capability. Fast forward 25 years and consumers enjoy always-on data-driven connectivity delivered through 4G and 5G networks, video calling and streaming as everyday behaviours, along with a full ecosystem of apps for all services.
Everyday
Smartphone are mainly used for everyday essentials: nearly one third read the news, one in five use them for work, emails and productivity, and 23 per cent for practical tasks like navigation or checking the weather. Dating apps rank very low among those aged 40+, with just two per cent including them in their top daily uses – almost three quarters were male.
The findings also reveal a certain nostalgia for early-day mobile phone use, with 53 per cent of Irish people over the age of 40 associating buying credit with those early days. Some 47 per cent associate early years of handset use with playing games such as Snake, while more than one in three people say they hold memories of choosing and downloading ringtones.
The research also indicates:
- Flip phones and text message character limits are widely remembered – one in three people aged 40 plus cited flip phones as their memory of early mobile use, with others reflecting on the evolution of text from the 160-character limits on SMS (29 per cent) to the ‘Please call me’ feature for when they ran out of credit (23 per cent).
- Sizable changes in consumer behaviour – 46 per cent of 40–49-year-olds are using voice notes more often than a few years ago, followed by 24 per cent of 50-64-year-olds and 14 per cent of people aged 65+.
- The research also reveals that just over a quarter (26 per cent) 40+ year olds spend 15-29 minutes on phone calls each day, while 42 per cent spend less than 15 minutes on calls. Almost 60 per cent of people make video calls more often now compared to a few years ago.
- While mobile use is so central to our lives, the need for in-person connection remains strongest. Among those aged 40 or over, meeting face-to-face ranks among the top three ways of staying connected with family and friends (77 per cent), followed by phone calls (60 per cent), text messaging (one in two), and video calls (31 per cent).
Pictured is comedian Killian Sundermann in a Vodafone ad
