[ press Release ]
NEW STUDY SHOWS MOBILE PHONES MERGING NEW, ESTABLISHED ROLES: COMMUNICATOR, SHOPPING AIDE, ENTERTAINMENT AND RESEARCH HUB
60% of owners say their phone is "always with them"; teens, Gen Y show dramatically higher enthusiasm about feature richness
Menlo Park, CA; September 18, 2008: Mobile phones are playing an increasingly important role in people's daily lives – traveling with them at all times, helping them make key shopping decisions, and connecting them to email, coupons, location-based services, and other applications. These are among the findings of How People Use® Cell Phones, a new study from Knowledge Networks.
Three in five (60%) mobile phone owners say they carry their phones at all times, even inside the home – up 50% since a 2002 KN analysis; and 32% say they call friends or family "all the time" or "often" when making shopping decisions, a figure that jumps to 45% among those ages 18 to 34. When asked an open-ended question about what they dislike about their cell phones, respondents most often (15%) said, "Nothing."
Younger users want more features
Enthusiasm for a variety of mobile phone applications, such as watching video or using GPS-type functions, is noticeably higher among younger generations. KN found that 61% of "Gen Y" consumers, or "Millennials," say "the more features the better" on a cell phone, compared with 27% of Boomers.
The study also shows that, among mobile phone owners:
- Members of Generation Y (ages 13 to 29) send an average of 20 text messages daily, compared to just 2 for Generation X (30-43) and less than one for Baby Boomers (44 to 64)
- Teens are four times as likely to report having watched TV or video on their phones as adults (8% versus 2%)
"Mobile phones are emerging as a powerful complement to the Web, in both entertainment and information seeking," said David Tice, Vice President and Group Account Director, Knowledge Networks and director of The Home Technology Monitor. "Many people and businesses could not function without the Web today, and the ‘always-with-me' pervasiveness of cell phones expands the reach of Internet functionality. As standard phones get upgraded with Web connections and location-based-features, their utility and necessity will only increase. Consumers are also clearly open to mobile advertising concepts that provide them real value in exchange for their attention to a marketing message."
Other data from Knowledge Networks – its MultiMedia Mentor® media planning resource, which includes single-source data on consumers' media use – affirms a connection between use of some advanced mobile phone features and heavy use of other media. For example, consumers (ages 18 to 64) who use cell phone video spend 27% more time per week with media (over 2 hours more per day) compared to all mobile phone owners; this includes 60% more time on the Internet, and almost triple the amount of time with videogames.
How People Use® Cell Phones shows that monthly use of the Internet via mobile phones is limited to 13% of all cell phone owners – a small but growing group that may be pointing the way toward the future.
The new HPU findings are produced as part of The Home Technology Monitor™, the definitive source of information on consumers' ownership and use of new and established media technologies, from DVRs to iPhones. The study consisted of
- interviews with 765 members (ages 13 to 64) of KnowledgePanel®, the only online panel that represents the full U.S. population, and
- an in-depth ethnographic study of cellular phone use by consumers in different households.
Selected benchmark trends versus a KN study of cellular phone use in 2002 are also included. The Home Technology Monitor™ provides the most authoritative information on the media technologies consumers have access to – from cellular phones with video service to digital video recorders; its reports draw on trend data from 1981 to the present, as well as KN's trademarked How People Use® approach to studying consumers' interactions with media. Its newest report is an annual overview of Ownership and Trends in media technology; to produce the study, KN conducted 2,636 in-depth interviews with a representative sample of households nationwide.
Knowledge Networks specializes in solving complex, high-impact problems, providing extraordinary quality and service to leaders in business, government and academia. We work closely with clients to create healthy consumer-brand connections, effective marketing and advertising, sound public policies, and accurate social science research. We have established respected practices in media, marketing, advertising, and government & academic studies. KN excels in study design, analytics, and custom panel creation; we deliver affordable, statistically valid online research through KnowledgePanel® – the only available probability selected, nationally representative Internet panel.
