Contractors are a lot more likely to use smartphone apps and watch online videos with their phones than they were three years ago, a survey by Equipment World finds.
In a post Oct. 27, Marcia Gruver Doyle said there has been a slight decline in email use, down 2% to 83%, but an 8% jump in texting, a 9% increase in website visits, and a 14% increase in social-media visits. But the two areas of greatest growth were the use of smartphone apps, up 50%, and watching videos, a 27% increase since 2011.
Overall, 66% of the respondents said they have a smartphone that connects to the internet, which is 14% more than in 2011 although still slightly behind the 70% of the general population, Doyle wrote.
Nearly all contractors who responded said they use their smartphones for interent searches about equipment.
Facebook was the big winner in the social-media catetory. While only 45% said they used social media, 94% of those said they visited Facebook — a number that hasn’t changed much in the last three surveys.
“While some of the contractors I talk to joke about being the last person they know who’s still using a flip phone, it’s clear they’re hardly exceptions to what’s happening in the world around them,” Doyle wrote. “How these trends play out in the years to come will be interesting to watch.”
Doyle offered no specifics on when the survey was taken or how many contractors responded.
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Builders are more likely to use internet-connected smartphones now than they were three years ago, a survey taken by Equipment World finds. The use of apps is up by 50%.
