The Brazilian mobile device market is booming. Mobile phone penetration levels are reported to be well over 100% [Source: Wireless Intelligence]. However, a 2011 Nielsen report into global youth mobile ownership shows the country has a high level of multiple subscriptions among the younger generation, which have skewed the true figures. Despite the size of this market, mobility in the workplace has yet to be investigated. To rectify this, in June we interviewed a select group of 33 IT and business professionals to gain an insight into Brazilian mobility within the office. The results, though small, help provide a greater understanding of business mobile use in Brazil.

1. South
America
BRAZIL : SP TLIGHT
Mobility in Brazil
The Brazilian mobile device market is booming. Mobile phone penetration levels are reported to be well over 100%
[Source: Wireless Intelligence]. However, a 2011 Nielsen report into global youth mobile ownership shows the country
has a high level of multiple subscriptions among the younger generation, which have skewed the true figures. Despite
the size of this market, mobility in the workplace has yet to be investigated. To rectify this, in June we interviewed a
select group of 33 IT and business professionals to gain an insight into Brazilian mobility within the office. The results,
though small, help provide a greater understanding of business mobile use in Brazil.
88% Business & IT professionals
[work and/or personal]
14% National average
“% of Brazilians who own a smartphone”,
[source: IDG Connect & US Media Consulting]
Findings: A Picture of Smartphones
Nationally smartphone adoption is low, around the 15% mark [Source: US Media Consulting], yet within our select
study, the figure rose to almost 90%. This sample though relatively small, helps paint a picture of the business
environment within Brazil, and should pave the way for future research in this area.
Just under half of participants only owned a personal phone, while 40% had both. A surprisingly high number (15%)
only owned a work phone, and that only one participant did not have any sort of mobile device is indicative of Brazil’s
wholesome adoption of mobile phones in general. Android proved the most popular choice across the survey, but as a
business choice the split was far more evenly divided. Of those that had both a work and personal phone, half owned
the same type of device for both.
18%
125% 145%
2010 2011 2012
“% of business and IT professionals don’t “Brazil’s mobile subcription rate - end 2011: 125%,
own a personal phone”, [source: IDG Connect] Predicted - end 2012: 145%”,
[source: Wireless Intelligence & Budde]

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America
Work phone Personal phone 100
ownership: ownership: Work phone
54%
52% 82%
80
Personal phone
60
of which of which
40
25% 4% 17%
20
93% 91%
13% 40% 27% 20%
0
ry
oi d
er
er
ne
h
kB
“% that own smartphones”
dr
ho
Ot
An
ac
iP
[source: IDG Connect]
Bl
“Work/personal phone breakdown”
[source: IDG Connect]
Findings: A Picture of Tablets
We found that tablet ownership overall was surprisingly high;
the national ownership rate lies around the 12% mark according While national smartphone adoption
to UM, but our research shows around half of business is around 15%, within our study this
professionals owned such a device. However, the vast majority figure rose to almost 100%.
are for personal use, not work. We found that none of the For tablets the figure rose from 12%
participants only owned a work tablet, and very few own both. to 50%.
There was very little difference between brand choices, with a
very slight preference for Apple.
Overall there was a varied spread of IT stack combination, but personal devices were far more common than work
devices, and tablets are yet to make their way into the workplace in a meaningful way. However, this research does
suggest a growing adoption of these devices among the business community and mirrors the trend in the wider public,
just at a much faster rate.
60
50
53%
6% Yes 40
41%
30
48% 52% 20
No Yes
94%
10
No
6%
0
id
le
ad
“Do you own a work tablet?” “Do you own a personal tablet?”
ro
nd
iP
d
Ki
An
[source: IDG Connect] [source: IDG Connect]
“Personal tablet ownership”
[source: IDG Connect]

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America
Background
In March Forbes called e-commerce Brazil’s most promising sector. And it’s not hard to see why. According to Nielsen,
internet users reached 80 million by the end of last year, the fifth highest in the world and achieving a 42% penetration.
Though this is a good base, current broadband connection is very low and many areas, especially rural ones, are
lacking proper coverage. This is an issue which the government and providers are addressing with new fibre-optics and
undersea cables.
Buoyed by the news that 3G subscriptions grew by 99% last year, the government recently looked ahead to 4G,
raising 2.93 billion reals ($1.4 billion) in an auction of wireless airways to mobile operators. The winning bids need to
have infrastructure in place by April for the host cities of next year’s Confederations Cup, and the end of next year for
the cities involved with the 2014 World Cup.
Also a good base for e-commerce is the sheer number of mobile phone owners. Penetration stands at well over
100% (around 253 million subscriptions), and looks set to reach around 145% by the end of the year. However,
distribution isn’t even, with people owning multiple phones a common occurrence. Just like across the world, it’s the
young who lead ownership and use.
It’s not all positive though. Telecoms companies run municipal monopolies, as shown by the fact of the entire area
covered by mobile internet; only 12.6% of municipalities have
two or more competing market operators. Price is also an issue,
as currently Brazil has one of the highest phone rates in the Telecoms companies run municipal
world. And although they are set to fall, this won’t be until 2014 monopolies; of the entire area
or even later. These high costs are why nearly 80% of mobile covered by mobile internet, only
owners opt to use a pre-paid plan. 12% of municipalities have two or
more competing market operators.
Some interesting research by Opera showed 62% of the
respondents said they would be willing to spend up to R$10 [Source: Forbes]
on a monthly basis for mobile broadband, 55% would like to
use their mobile devices for shopping. If mobile operators take this on board and don’t price themselves out, the
introduction of 4G could be the moment that mobile internet takes off.
Brazil US
Total population
192m 300m Online population
80m 245m Facebook users
54.2m 156m Facebook penetration
of total population
27% 50%
Facebook penetration
71% 61% of online population
Sources: Socialbakers, Wikipedia, Nielsen,
Internet world stats [figures as of Aug 2012]
Brazil is also massive on social media. With over 50 million Facebook users, it has the second highest number in
the world after the US. A critical difference however is Brazil is only at 27% penetration, meaning there’s still a huge
market out there to sign up. According to Socialbakers, over seven million have joined in the last three months, an
increase of 15%. Brazil also wins silver for number of Twitter subscribers, overtaking Japan at the start of the year
with a massive 33.3 million accounts, though the land of the rising sun remains more active on the micro-blogging
site. Brazilians are also far better at engaging with content through the likes of comments than most other countries,
and are more likely to follow user-generated content.

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America
In countries like the UK and US, the challenge for
social media is trying to monetise the huge amounts Expert Opinion
of mobile users, but in Brazil, they needn't bother.
Internet access from mobiles stands at around 3%, Gabriel Cogo,
desktops being the most popular way of accessing Web Entrepreneur, Sales
the internet by a country mile. Analyst and Masters Student
in Systems Administration
Conclusion Mobility in Brazil
Brazil has huge numbers of mobile users, and efforts The popularisation of technology in Brazil has brought
to bring the mobile internet up to the same levels are several changes to the way people relate to one
underway. Meanwhile the smartphone revolution is another. iPads, iPhones, Galaxies; they are all easy to
still on-going, but slowly business professionals are carry, easy to use and not as expensive as they once
adopting devices such as Android powered phones. were. And it was inevitable these changes wouldn’t be
Our research shows that businesses currently able to stay out of the workplace.
adopting a policy of separate work phones are low in
number, and while around half of professionals own a With this proliferation of mobile devices comes a new
personal tablet practically none are using work tablet. area of study that tries to comprehend in what way
The concerns associated with BYOD have been these devices affect companies. Bring-Your-Own-
very well documented, only time will tell what impact Device (BYOD) is coming, but who is really ready for
this will have on Brazilian business over the next 12 this? In many companies, the governance policy for
months. outside technology using corporate internet is still
stuck in the past, banning everything and putting their
heads in the sand. While these businesses are carrying
on trying to ignore the future, many others try to
benefit from this new trend.
About IDG Connect
There’s the good side of all this access to people,
information, and whatever else you can imagine. I use
IDG Connect is the demand generation division of an iPad and an Android smartphone, but I still use
International Data Group (IDG), the world’s largest my good old desktop while writing this piece. Many
technology media company. Established in 2005, workers have acquired state of the art technology,
it utilises access to 35 million business decision but how many of them use at least 30% of what their
makers’ details to unite technology marketers with devices are capable of? Another problem that many
relevant targets from any country in the world. Brazilians are facing with the evolution of technology
Committed to engaging a disparate global IT is the spread of “always on” culture. Not that this is a
audience with truly localised messaging, IDG Connect new thing at all, but is a problem that is being made
also publishes market specific thought leadership worse by constant access to work.
papers on behalf of its clients, and produces research
for B2B marketers worldwide. For more information While BlackBerry is still running in the corporate
visit: area in Brazil, there’s no denial that tablets and other
http://www.idgconnect.com/ smartphones are gaining territory. If prepared and
trained for them, they can be a great upgrade for our
daily tasks, and can make life much easier. But there is
always the risk that they can become not an accessory
but a necessity, as many other devices are in our life.
The main question is going to be how many different
technologies we can use at the same time. I believe
I’m about to reach my limit. What about you?