With the rapid growth of smartphone ownership over the last couple of years, it was inevitable that people in the UK would increasingly turn to their mobiles to access local travel information and journey planning applications. More than ever, consumers expect to source information quickly, spontaneously and with minimal effort – which begs the question, why would you ever need to use a paper map when you have your phone to hand?

Over the last 2 years, GfK have run online qualitative discussions with smartphone owners, asking them exactly that. Over the course of a 3 day online discussion in 2009, which was repeated in 2010, we discovered that the various map formats that exist (both physical and digital) are still widely used, with each format offering unique functional and emotional benefits. There is clearly not one maps service that ticks all boxes for consumers as yet.

The following embedded video, produced by GfK Film Works, provides an overview of the findings:

To view the full online discussions, which were conducted using GfK’s Revelation partner software or for more information on the research, please contact Anna Lancaster by clicking here

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1. The trend towards mobile navigation usage will not destroy demand for PNDs… at least not in 2011 anyway

Tags: Consumer, Location, Location Based Services, Mobile Maps, Mobile Navigation, Research, Smartphones