Ladbrokes, UK bookmakers, have gathered results of their online test of 1,000 smartphone users, challenged to complete seven online brain teasers. The brainteasers were designed to see which brand's users were the smartest.
Apple, Google, Samsung, HTC, Nokia and Blackberry represented the phone brands placed in the arena. Entries were ranked according to speed. Each user was asked to select the user's handset brand before completing the test, and a timer in the top right-hand corner recorded their speed. Based on the respondents' speed of providing correct answers, Apple won.
In turn, part of the Daily Mail headline: "iPhone users are more intelligent than Samsung, BlackBerry and HTC owners, finds survey." The brain teasers involved problem-solving, pattern recognition, and code cracking. Each question had four possible answers and a participant had to select the correct answer before moving onto the next teaser. iPhone users were the fastest at solving the problem. It took iPhone users 94 seconds; Google users, 99 seconds; Samsung users, 103; HTC, 105; Nokia, 109; and Blackberry, 118. Interestingly, the fastest test of all was completed by a Samsung owner, at 47 seconds.
Can smartphone user speed in choosing brainteaser test choices support conclusions about smartphone user intelligence? And wait another minute. Ubergizmo noted that "One of the reasons the test should not be taken seriously is also because there is no penalty for wrong answers as users could simply keep clicking until they got the right one."
A Test of Wits page that carried the test told respondents, "Take note: This is a speed game! You will only move onto the next question once you have answered the question you are on correctly. Once you have answered the questions correctly you will receive your time." Ubergizmo, in presenting its headline, placed the word "study" in quotation marks as well as the word "smarter." The Register said, "It goes without saying that all of this research, reported in the pages of the Mail Online, should be taken with a few grains of salt."
Numerous studies over the past few years have drawn up categories and conclusions that seek to link personality traits with smartphone choices. Last year, the Daily Mail reported yet another personality-to-smartphone linking survey this time commissioned by TalkTalk Mobile, which surveyed 2,000 owners of three smartphone types, the iPhone, Android, and Blackberry. Apple users were more image-conscious, Blackberry users were busier, drank the most tea and coffee, and Android users were shy, quiet, and watched the most television. People who own an iPhone were most likely to describe themselves as daring, flirty or bright and were most likely to work in media, publishing, retail and education.
