Mobile phones are found all around the world — ubiquitous even in emerging markets such as China and India — but how you use the device depends greatly on where you live.

In a new report entitled "The Mobile Consumer: A Global Snapshot," research company Nielsen looked at consumer behavior, device preference and usage in 10 different countries, including the U.S., UK, Australia, China, India and South Korea.

Nielsen concluded that "usage differs significantly by market and demographic groups."

For example, the majority of mobile consumers in developed markets — such as South Korea (67%), Australia (65%) and the UK (61%) — tend to prefer smartphones. Basic feature phones, on the other hand, are more commonly used in India (80%), Turkey (61%) and Russia (51%). Mid-range multimedia phones, which have more capabilities than feature phones but less than smartphones, are least popular among users, with less than 10% usage in most countries (at 21%, Brazil boasts the highest percentage of multimedia-phone users among those examined in Neilsen's report).



For smartphone users, the types of apps used also differ between countries, though they all generally prefer games and social networking. Americans like to consult maps and browse social networks, while Chinese users enjoy playing games and are more likely to access news and weather updates on their mobile apps.



Nielsen is set to present some of its findings from "The Mobile Consumer" at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Tuesday.

What do you think of the report's results? Do they reflect your mobile-phone usage? Tell us in the comments, below.
































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Olympics fans like sports. But what do they Like? Facebook — who else? — holds many interesting insights there.

Social media advertising company Compass Labs recently analyzed Facebook fans of the official Olympic Games and U.S. Olympic Team pages to compile some revealing profiles of how the two groups match up. And don’t worry about a small sample size — combined, the two pages have about 5.7 million fans.

Compass Labs cross-referenced Likers’ other favorited Facebook pages to find which sports, movies, brands and TV shows rate highest with each group.

Overall, the two pages corral similar demographics. Both the U.S. team and the Olympics at large have fan bases that are about 55% female, and each count the 18-25 age group as their biggest bloc. After that, though, things get pretty different.

U.S. fans list track and field as their top sport, but it’s just eighth among overall Olympics aficionados. Fans of the Games in general go for, in order: ice hockey, badminton, archery, rowing, field hockey and gymnastics. None of those crack the top 10 sports for U.S. fans. Among individual athletes, however, swimmer Michael Phelps rules with both groups.

When it comes to brand loyalty, fans of The Olympic Games tend to be a bit more worldly with their biggest favorites than fans of the U.S. Olympic Team do. National Geographic, Gucci and Air Canada take three of the top four brand spots among fans of the Games.

US Olympic Team fans’ most-like brand, according to Compass Labs? Dow Chemical Company. We’re not quite sure what to make of that either.

Check out the full Compass Labs report below. Does any of this data surprise you? Let us know in the comments.


Thumbnail image courtesy of iStockphoto, cmannphoto





































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