Almost half of the people in Taiwan own smart devices — smartphones or tablet computers — according to a survey released by the Institute for Information Industry (III) yesterday.
Citing the survey results, the government-sponsored institute’s Foreseeing Innovative New Digiservices (FIND) said that 49.5 percent of Taiwanese aged 12 or older, or 10.53 million people, own smartphones or tablets.
The FIND said 43.1 percent of Taiwanese aged 12 or older, or 9.17 million people, have smartphones, while 18.5 percent, or 3.93 million, own tablets.
The survey was conducted by the FIND and marketing advisory group Mobile First from March 21 to May 8, in which a total of 970 valid samples were analyzed.
The survey is conducted twice a year to track trends in mobile device usage.
The FIND said the survey shows that more people are using smartphones or tablets, as mobile devices gain popularity in the local market.
In the previous survey conducted in the fourth quarter of last year, 41.3 percent of respondents aged 12 or older, or a total of 8.78 million, owned smartphones or tablets.
The FIND said the trend toward mobile devices is expected to continue to grow.
It expects that the ratio of smartphone owners will rise to 67.2 percent by 2015, while 31.6 percent will own tablets.
The results of the survey also showed that 79.5 percent of smartphone owners use the device to make or receive calls, while 23.3 percent send text messages.
As for tablets, 49.4 percent of owners use them to surf the Internet or read news, while 38.8 percent use them for playing games. More than 10 percent of owners use them to access YouTube or other audio and video content, social networks or chat rooms.
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