UK consumers are the earliest adopters of new technology

Research by Ofcom has found that UK consumers are more likely to be early adopters of new technology than any other country.

The regulator’s International Communications Market report, which looks at the take up of broadband, landlines, mobile, TV and radio in 17 countries, reveals the UK is the best connected for broadband, mobile and digital TV and has seen one of the fastest take-up rates of smartphones.

While the UK is one of the fastest to take up technologies overall, Italy has the highest take up of mobile at 95% (91% in the UK) and the Netherlands has the highest broadband take up at 85% (70% in the UK).

The UK is second only to Japan for the adoption of mobile internet, with 29% of the UK population using the mobile web, compared to 43% in Japan.

Where the UK leads is in the take up of new TV technologies – 91% of the population watch digital TV and 59% have HD-ready TV sets.

According to the research, the UK is behind other countries for take up of VoIP services at only 5%, compared to France (26%) and the Netherlands (20%).

The report also looked into ad spend on new technologies, stating that the UK has high spend in internet and mobile ad spend, accounting for 27% of total ad spend – the highest proportion of any country.

This story first appeared on newmediaage.co.uk