A new report by global market research firm Synovate has found that Filipinos lead the way in the use of many mobile features among 11 countries covered by the survey.

Aside from being the world’s heaviest senders of SMS or text messages, Filipinos can now claim another title in the mobile space: Most savvy users of a mobile phone.

In the study, 87 percent of the local population use the phone’s alarm clock as against the global average of 67 percent. There were 8,000 total respondents.

Sixty-three percent of Filipinos also play games regularly, 48 percent listen to or download music, 44 percent watch video clips, and 13 percent even watch TV (versus an overall 5 percent).

Carole Sarthou, Synovate’s managing director for the Philippines, said in a statement that the high numbers of the country can be attributed to ”cultural” and ”circumstantial” factors.

”It’s part of the national psyche to love social connections, music and entertainment. How the Filipino love affair with the mobile is different compared to developing nations is that, in many cases, a mobile is all people have,” she said.

”It’s the only way they can listen to music, the only way they can play games and the only way they can communicate from afar. Many Filipinos use this instead of the Internet and computers and it’s not surprising that it has become such a multi-purpose, multi-tasking tool,” Sarthou added.

The survey also found that the Philippines was the closest market to being split on the issue when asked, ”If lost, which would be harder to replace… your mobile phone or wallet/purse?”

Respondents from the Philippines said 47 percent of them said their mobile phone would be harder to replace while 52 percent chose the wallet/purse.

Full Story: Manila Bulletin/Yahoo PH