What smartphone users expect from the devices

09/23/2021 – German smartphone users want particularly healthy and powerful devices in the current situation.

by Christina Rose

Apps that warn about the risk of infection, apps for safe registration at restaurants or digital vaccination cards – since the Covid-19 pandemic, the smartphone has been an important tool for staying healthy. But what about the cleanliness of the smartphone itself? After all, we touch our smartphone a lot every day. According to a new study, two-thirds of German consumers (66 percent) feel that one should be especially careful here and take smartphone hygiene more seriously. In Spain, 87 percent of those questioned supported this view.

one of Bullet Group
The study conducted by licensees worldwide for Cat phones, showed that hygiene is currently a very important issue for smartphone users and that many consumers want to use devices with special hygiene protection. More than half of German consumers (56 percent) are interested in a mobile phone that has permanent protection against bacteria and can be washed and cleaned well on a regular basis. In Spain up to 74 percent of consumers have this desire.

According to the study, there is a surprising discrepancy between awareness of the importance of smartphone hygiene and actual cleaning: just under a third of German consumers (29 percent) clean their smartphones at least once a week with alcohol or disinfectant wipes. Up to only 10 percent spray hand sanitizer on their phones, and only 6 percent wash it with soap and water. This indicates that many smartphone owners are concerned about damaging their expensive devices – and not without good reason. In fact, traditional smartphones can be damaged by thorough cleaning.

It’s better to have powerful functions than 5G

Currently, under the pandemic, many people still spend most of their free time outdoors. There is a special demand for smartphones that you can rely on at work and in your spare time. That is why many consumers want not only healthy phones in particular, but also powerful phones in general: accordingly, powerful functions and phones that do not break easily rank second among the most important characteristics of a mobile phone. 60 percent of those surveyed said so. The long-lasting battery comes first (77 percent). On the other hand, the 5G trend is only significant for 23 percent of German users.