Devices for accessing the news and the impact of tablets and smartphones

Overall we find that more people are accessing news through a greater number of devices than ever before. The computer remains the most important device for online news, but for many this is now supplemented by heavy usage of smartphones and tablets. Across all our countries 46% of our sample use a smartphone and 31% say they used the device for news at least once in the past week. One in four (25%) use a tablet, with 16% on average using it for news. In countries like the UK, tablet usage for news has doubled in 10 months.

Denmark has the highest weekly news usage of smartphones at 43%, with Japan showing the lowest level at 19% – though this is largely because it also provides mobile access to the internet via platforms such as iMode which are still dominated by feature phones. In terms of European countries, we see France and Germany showing the lowest levels of online news access via tablets and smartphones.

The laptop or desktop remains the most important single device for accessing news but smartphones and tablets are not far behind in terms of the proportion of users accessing news each week. E-readers are used far less for news content, even though a number of publishers have created digital editions for them. Connected televisions, which have access to text and video on demand services in a number of countries, are becoming increasingly popular, although the definition and use for news is hard to explain with a survey.

Apple devices in particular are more heavily used for news than those running other operating systems. This will be related to the slightly more upmarket demographics for these devices but also because of the wide availability and promotion of news apps and mobile websites for this platform. In general, however, Apple devices are now a minority in most countries, particularly in Spain and Brazil where Android and Blackberry are far more popular. In Northern Europe and the United States the iPad remains the dominant tablet for news, particularly in Denmark where it outperforms other manufacturers by a ratio of more than four to one.

Demographic effects of different devices

Smartphone news usage across all our countries is heavily focused on the under 45s. Older groups are largely sticking with computers. In terms of age, tablets show a more even spread, with a significant bulge with the 25–44 age group.

Tablet and smartphone news users are generally to be found in higher education and income brackets, which may explain the greater interest in news. In the United States, the richest one-third of our sample¹ – earning over $60,000 – account for 60% of smartphone news usage, 53% of tablet news usage, and 40% of computer news usage. In the UK we also see smartphones showing a bigger income effect than tablets, whereas computer news use is spread relatively equally across income.

Multi-platform usage extends options

The growth of smartphones and tablets has not generally come at the expense of other media, but is instead increasing the range of options. Looking at tablet owners in the United States and the UK, for example, around four out of five continue to access news on television, with a healthy number still reading printed newspapers each week.

There is some evidence of substitution of print in the United States where the average use by tablet users (37%) and smartphone users (36%) is considerably less than the sample average (49%). In the United Kingdom, however, tablet users are just as likely to read a printed newspaper as the average (57%).

Looking specifically at those who use online news across all our sampled countries we can see that a quarter of our sample (26%) accesses news on a computer and a smartphone each week. There are also strong overlaps between the computer and the tablet (15%), while a growing number of people (7%) say they access news on all three devices on a weekly basis.

Smartphone usage increases frequency but not depth

Our data show that mobile phones are used more frequently for accessing quick news updates during the day (79% net agree in the UK and 77% in the US), with only a small proportion agreeing that the mobile is frequently accessed for in-depth news. Tablets on the other hand are valued for quick updates and in-depth news. Fewer than one in five mobile phone users agree that the experience is better than a PC – not surprising given the small screen size and often poorly formatted content. The advantages are more around convenience than experience.

On a tablet, on the other hand, a significant proportion (43% in the UK) agree that the experience – which often includes optimised touch and swipe interfaces – is better than a computer. Tablet users are also more likely to pay for news than smartphone users.

These preference statements are supported by quantitative data that show both smartphone and tablet users access news more frequently than those using computers. The more devices people access, the more frequently they access news. On the other hand these devices are used for many other things, such as email and social networking – so the scope for distraction is inevitably greater than with traditional platforms like a printed newspaper. Average time spent on news with a tablet is lower than for a computer and considerably lower for a smartphone.

Frequency of access grows with devices