A large number of Britons check their smartphones more than 25 times a day, a new study has revealed, with the entire population of the UK checking their devices nearly 1.1 billion times a day, the equivalent of 400 billion times a year.
The figures come from the Deloitte Mobile Consumer report which analysed the mobile usage habits of over 4,000 UK consumers as part of a global survey of 49,000.
The report revealed that a third (36 per cent) of smartphone owners looked at their device more than 25 times a day, with a sixth (16 per cent) of respondents look at their smartphone more than 50 times.
It was found that one in ten (12 per cent) smartphone owners reaches for their device immediately upon waking; more than half (55 per cent) do so within 15 minutes of waking up and more than a quarter (28 per cent) check their phones within the five minutes before going to sleep each night.
The research also found that two thirds use their smartphones while on public transport; 60 per cent while at work; and almost a third use them while eating at a restaurant.
Altogether the figures add up to a collective 1.1bn smartphones checks in Britain every day.
“The modern, touchscreen-based smartphone is less than a decade old, but it is more intertwined with our lives than ever,” said Paul Lee, Deloitte’s head of technology, media and telecoms research.
“Constant technological improvements are allowing us to delegate more and more tasks to our phones, from ordering taxis to browsing catalogues and paying for a meal.”
“The frequency of consumers glancing at their smartphones arguably makes it one of the best value devices available. For the sixth of smartphone owners who look at their devices 50 times or more a day, the cost per glance is less than two pence a day for a £700 handset kept for two years.”
Elsewhere, the study found that as of May-June 2015, around 76 per cent of UK adults owned a smartphone, up six per cent from the previous year and 14 per cent from 2013.
Around 30 per cent of smartphone users currently use 4G, up from eight per cent a year ago, while the number of Brits making mobile payments has increased from three to 13 per cent.
