B2X Global Survey Reveals Device Addiction and Other Surprising Smartphone Habits Around the World

SAN FRANCISCO, CA and MUNICH, GERMANY--(Marketwired - Dec 10, 2014) - B2X Care Solutions, the leading provider of customer care for smartphones, today announced the results of a survey on mobile device usage, consumer behavior and service expectations around the world. The survey polled more than 2,500 smartphone and tablet users from the top five smartphone regions globally, including the United States, Germany, Brazil, India and China.

Worldwide, customer support and after sales service were considered very important and were the top criteria when purchasing a new device, followed closely by brand image. As for technical criteria, technological advancement, new features, and the latest model topped consumer considerations when purchasing a new device. Putting those statistics into perspective, over half of respondents own a smartphone or tablet that's less than one year old.

Additionally, the B2X Consumer Survey revealed the following findings:

• A regional breakdown of smartphone behavior:
  • United States: 98% of Americans between the ages of 16-29 sleep with their smartphones and 13% wouldn't give up their smartphone for a week even if they were paid $500
  • China: The Chinese spend the most money on smartphones. In fact, more than 75% spend more than $250 when purchasing a device and 80% own two or more smartphones, which they tend to replace after less than a year.
  • Germany: Even though Germans are the least addicted to their smartphones, 58% still keep their phones on their body or within reach at all times during the day and 84% want the most technically advanced model when purchasing a new device.
  • India: 57% of Indians said they can't live without their smartphones, which makes them the most addicted group of respondents.
  • Brazil: 63% of Brazilians spend at least three hours on their smartphones a day, making them the heaviest device users.
    
    
• Although smartphone users around the world have different preferences, addiction is a global epidemic:
  • 1 in 6 Brazilians would give up their spouse for a week before their smartphone
  • 1 in 7 Americans would give up their best friend for a week before giving up their smartphone
  • 1 in 6 German men would give up their car for a week before their smartphone
  • 1 in 3 Indians and 1 in 2 Chinese would give up their TV for a week before their smartphone
    
    
• With global addiction, there is a need for superior customer care:
  • Across all regions, customer care and after sales service are the most important factors for buying a new smartphone
  • In America and China, most consumers wait less than 24 hours to have their smartphone repaired while in Brazil, India and Germany it takes almost 8 days for the same repair.
  • Americans tend to be the most satisfied with their repair process while Brazilians are the least satisfied.
    
    
• The most common device repairs globally include:
  1. Software Malfunctions
  2. Broken phone screens
  3. Faulty phone batteries
  
  
• The top customer support problems include:
  1. Transferring data to a new device
  2. Setting up email and connections
  3. Understanding new features
  
  

"At B2X, we firmly believe that as the number of devices increases globally, there will be an ever increasing need for superior customer care and we aim to enable our clients to deliver nothing less to their customers worldwide," said Thomas Berlemann, CEO of B2X Care Solutions. "This survey illustrates the high importance of devices to people and the potential pain points they may have regarding customer support. With our big data intelligence and technology we can help our clients to detect potential support problems more quickly, enable real-time decision making, even on a predictive basis globally."

This survey polled a sample set of smartphone users from 16 to 65 years old who personally owned their devices. There were 518 respondents from the United States, 535 from Germany, 507 from India, 515 from China and 503 from Brazil.

About B2X Care Solutions
B2X is the leading provider of customer care solutions for smartphone devices to manufacturers. The company's Smart Service Platform consists of cloud based technology for improving customer care and best practice service delivery processes to ensure consistency and quality across service operations, supported by a global organization of highly experienced staff and a trusted and reliable operational fulfillment partner network. B2X is the preferred choice for smartphone manufacturers in more than 110 countries worldwide. For additional information, visit www.b2x.com, B2X Twitter, B2X LinkedIn, Gartner Cool Vendor 2014 - B2X.