TNS study reveals the UK’s hunger for social networking

RESEARCH conducted by TNS has revealed the UK as a leader for social notworking on mobile devices but a lack of interest in tablets compared with the rest of Europe.

The phenomenon of social networking is huge worldwide and TNS's results show that consumers in the UK are the most frequent users of technology on the go. Out of all western countries the UK ranked highest with 11 million users logging on to the likes of Facebook whilst on the go.

Apparently 5.5 million Brits access social networking via a mobile device every day with a further 8 million, who do not currently, interested in doing so.

With 17 million smartphone owners in the UK, Brits top Europe for downloading apps, watching video and downloading games.

In terms of purchasing a handset, the results showed that people in the UK cared most about the design and input method of the device rather than the model or operating system.

When it comes to tablets, of which we are seeing more and more appear each month, the study interestingly revealed that interest in the UK for these devices is significantly lower than in the rest of Europe. According to the study 17 per cent of people said they were interested in buying a tablet in the next 6 months compared to 28 per cent across Europe and 31 per cent in Asia.

Perhaps that 17 per cent were what made up the long queues outside Apple stores last week for the launch of its Ipad 2. Everyone else probably can't afford such a device in the current economic climate.

The survey by TNS is the world's largest study of mobile consumers' habits. It consists of over 25,000 hours of interviews of 34,000 consumers aged 16 to 60 in 43 countries world wide. µ