Mobile Users Speak…to their devices!
Do you ever find yourself driving down the highway, asking your smartphone for directions to a restaurant or a friend’s house? 3 in 4 Mobile Users say they utilize at least some form of voice activation on their smartphones or tablets, for a variety of uses from commands (“Call Mom”) to personal assistants (“Siri, what restaurants are nearby?”), according to the latest mobile survey from Prosper Mobile Insights.
The most popular voice features are Internet searches and directions. Nearly 1 in 3 (32.0%) regularly speaks to a device to search the Web and another 20.7% ask their smartphone or tablet for directions. 14.6% say they regularly talk to text, 12.8% utilize personal assistants and 11.6% use voice commands often:
Among the 74.4% who use voice activation at least occasionally, most (63.1%) are somewhat or very satisfied with the voice capabilities on their mobile devices. However, about a fourth of this group (23.8%) is neutral—they are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. Perhaps these folks just haven’t used voice activation to the fullest? Maybe they’ve read too many autocorrect mishaps? Or maybe other smartphone and tablet features are just more alluring. Mobile Users say texting, Internet access, calling and email are the top features they can’t live without, along with GPS and of course, apps.
Even more insights are available on your tablet via the Prosper Mobile InsightCenter. You can install the app on your iPad or download to your Android™ tablet. No tablet? No problem! View the InsightCenter online here.
Android™ is a trademark of Google, Inc.
Source: Prosper Mobile Insights™ Mobile Survey, April 2012, N=328
© 2012, Prosper®
The BIG Consumer Blog 
Very interesting research. I think this trend will only keep going upward.
It raises a question: are pens and keyboards the “buggy whips” of the mobile era?
i.e. will voice completely replace the need to create text manually?
I know there are still lots of bugs with V2T, but the technology just gets better and better.
And it raises another intriguing question: will V2T surplant our need (or even our ability) to write? If we can dictate it, why write it? Will we become a society that reads, but no longer writes? I don’t find this a scary prospect, rather just an interesting topic of discussion.
The legions of Apple dependant people are largely unaware that they have sold their power as a consumer to Apple and Apple’s advertising clients. When you ask Siri for a place to eat, you will be first directed to any advertisers that have paid Apple to be featured on Siri. People are becoming less self-sifficient and more dependant on somebody helping them.