Poll: how much of your browsing is done on your phone?
The weekend is a good time to run a poll to gauge how much browsing you do from your smartphone. It doesn’t matter which phone you use or what you do on it. What we’re interested to see is how much of your quick web surfing you do from your phone.
I find that I am doing more and more of that from one smartphone or another. I jump on the web on the iPhone, BlackBerry Storm and the T-Mobile G1. I usually do it when I want to jump on and do something specific like check my RSS feeds, check this site for comments that have been made since my last visit, or to search for some piece of information. Modern web browsers are more than good enough for these activities and I grab the phone more often than I used to. So what about you?
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The screen on my BB Bold is so nice that I actually don’t mind using it for occasional browsing, especially catching up on Google Reader while eating at a restaurant where I’m not likely to pull out my Vaio P.
You may want to differentiate between people that have the capability and don’t use it and those that can’t surf on their phone.
How much of your quick web work is done on your phone?
My phone doesn’t have internet capability
None, I choose not to
Only occasionally
At least once a day
Multiple times a day
All the time
More than at the desktop
I would would sadly fit into the first category.
I’m all for great phones, but I wouldn’t do much browsing on a <4″ screen however good when I’m used to browsing on multiple desktop monitors.
I’d use it to check information from time to time but unfortunately I don’t get wi-fi at many places outside work and home (that don’t require special sign-ups) and signing up for services is prohibitively expensive.
Given that bulk costs for home internet are about 20c per gigabyte (?) and if I signed up for data service and used it occasionally it would come to $10 per megabyte, a 50,000 times increase. I’ll come back in a few years and see if the market is more efficient.
Since I spend sooooooo much time on a standard desktop (8-10 hours a day) I don’t generally find any reason at all to browse on a phone. My phones are capable of doing so, but it’s nice to be able to take a break.
So the only time I do browse is during intermission at the hockey games or for a specific thing during times when a desktop isn’t around.
Sometimes I wonder if that urgent need to check a website or something is a sign of internet addiction. ;)
Hey, I resemble that remark. :)
I don’t do any browsing at all on my phone. My iPod touch is a different story.
Does netbook with wwan count?
I’ve not read a book or a magazine in bed since I got my first iPhone! Mobile browsing all the way. I’d actually go as far as to say that I’m addicted to it.
The first and last electronic gadget I use every day is my iPhone for a quick check of RSS feeds (which then usually leads to some browsing for details). And I use the iPhone safari several times over the course of the way. The browser was THE deciding feature that caused me to switch from my trusty old Treo 700p.
It’s amazing how many times we would be at dinner or traveling and some obscure topic comes up, it’s nice to be able to hop on the web to get the answer. Half the time it’s imdb.com and the other half is wikipedia.
It’s my last choice if I have more than one device to choose from. But, in a pinch, I’ll use it while waiting at the doctors or while the kids are in their swiming lessons.
But I do most of my email reading on my phone. SO much so that, two weeks ago I restored two laptops and I have yet to configure OUtlook on either of them.
Gordon
Interesting results so far. The attachment to the internet is obviously strong enough to overcome the limitations of the small screen.
Ideally I would like a slate/convertable UMPC or similar to carry around but the iPhone will have to suffice for the moment.
Probably my most activity on the iPhone is to browse my RSS feeds and read my email but it is most certainly not limited to that.
I use my blackberry curve for most surfing and for large file transfer as the modem for the laptop. T-Mobile is the best carrier.
I’m currently using an old Sony Ericson Z520i right now…. but I still find myself checking emails, facebook, etc several times a day using Opera Mini. It works quite well.