Contextual usage patterns in smartphone communication services

Abstract

The mobile end user context has received a lot of attention from the mobile services industry lately. The location-based and context-sensitive information that are characteristic for smartphones can be utilized to study the use context of mobile end users. Accordingly, this article utilizes handset-based data in analyzing how the context of use affects the usage of smartphone communication services. The context is identified with an algorithm utilizing mobile network cell ID and WLAN data and resulting in five place-related contexts, namely Home, Office, Other meaningful, Elsewhere and Abroad. According to our analysis, voice calls are used least intensively in the Home context where the length of the voice calls is the longest, however. Email and SMS are used most intensively in the Office context, where the voice calls are the shortest in duration. Finally, mobile IM/VoIP and social media services are more free-time oriented as they are used most intensively in Elsewhere and Other meaningful contexts. The findings imply that people use smartphone communication services differently depending on the use context. However, context can be defined and identified in a number of ways, and this article presents only one solution that is highly dependent on the type of data collected. © 2011 Springer-Verlag London Limited.