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Understanding and Comparing Smartphone and Tablet Use: Insights from a Large-Scale Diary Study

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Published:07 December 2015Publication History

ABSTRACT

In recent years, smartphone and tablet ownership has shown continued growth; however, there is a lack of research thoroughly investigating the use of these devices within the general public. This paper describes a large-scale diary study with U. S. mobile device owners, examining details of smartphone and tablet use. Results provide a comprehensive breakdown of frequent activities and contexts of use, highlighting key differences in smartphone and tablet use. Activities on smartphones were found to be dominated by communication needs, while tablets were frequently used for consumption and entertainment. Both devices were most often used at home, with tablets rarely leaving the home. Within the home, smartphones were used mostly in the bedroom, and tablets in the living room. Both devices were used frequently while doing something else, such as using tablets primarily while watching TV. Conclusions discuss implications for enriching the experience of mobile devices and opportunities for future research.

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    • Published in

      cover image ACM Other conferences
      OzCHI '15: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Australian Special Interest Group for Computer Human Interaction
      December 2015
      691 pages
      ISBN:9781450336734
      DOI:10.1145/2838739

      Copyright © 2015 Owner/Author

      Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

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      Association for Computing Machinery

      New York, NY, United States

      Publication History

      • Published: 7 December 2015

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      • research-article
      • Research
      • Refereed limited

      Acceptance Rates

      OzCHI '15 Paper Acceptance Rate47of97submissions,48%Overall Acceptance Rate362of729submissions,50%

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