Which Activities Are Apt for Each Gizmo?

So you think that your smartphone and tablet aren’t working the way advertisers say they should? Are you having difficulty managing tasks on these devices? Getting pissed off by their eternally slow loading capabilities? These are the common complaints that we hear from smartphone and tablet users. In fact, a new survey says that no matter how holistic-functioning these devices must be, there are still some preferred tasks and activities that each device digs and we must be aware of these biases so that we can expect our electronics to work at the optimal level.

It is universally acknowledged that smartphones and tablets have overlapping functions. And this is quite conspicuous across all brands of devices, whether it’s Apple, Google, or Samsung. Nonetheless, what we all want is a smooth and fast mobile web experience.

In a survey published by Keynote, 5,388 people who owned either a tablet or a smartphone said that their number one frustration about the gadgets was the slow mobile page loading time, despite 27% of the respondents using their devices with 4G support.

According to Gigaom.com:

“The results may not surprise, as Keynote Systems is a San Mateo, CA-based mobile web monitoring company. But in speaking to many mobile users on my own, most do cite slow page load times as a challenge; particularly over mobile broadband. So I dug a little deeper into the survey results to see what other interesting insights might surface. It turns out that when looking at which activities both devices are used for, some of the data addresses my idea of tablets potentially replacing smartphones.”

In some articles, you can see that there are activities that can be performed better on a phone than on a tablet. Let’s say you are subscribed to social networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or Google Plus. You are more likely to grab your phone for status updates rather than a tablet. Because posts and updates are relatively small, a smartphone can do the job for you. And the survey results confirm exactly that: 46% of users update their networks through smartphone while only 31% use a tablet.

The same thing applies to Maps: Half of the respondents prefer using their smartphones while accessing Maps while a paltry 30% say they want it done using a tablet. Of course, maps are easily interpretable when they are viewed on a larger screen like the tablet, but few tablets offer the availability of GPS functions and wireless connection. And if both hands are on the wheel, it works just fine to have a smaller handheld device.

On the other hand, if we are talking about consuming digital media content, tablets will surely win hands down. And the Keynote survey confirms that: 76% of tablet owners watch videos on it while 59 % do so using their mobile phones. Other activities favorable for tablets are reading news, product and services research, reading and posting on blogs, and of course, online shopping!

Use your phone and tablet wisely!