Who Owns Mobile Devices?

Interesting data on ownership of mobile devices:
Pew Research Center, Pew Internet: Mobile

So, most Americans (91%) have a cell phone, and over half of cell phone owners (55%) say their phone is a smartphone.

Clearly, the device of preference is a cell phone:





The worst penetration for smartphones is the group 65 years and older, at only 18% (although a majority (76%) of 65+ own non-smartphones). The best is 18-29 year olds at 80%! Another group where smartphone penetration is high (78%) is households with income $75,000 or greater.

Gender, race, and education also affect phone ownership. More men than women, more blacks than whites or hispanics, and those with more education own smartphones. (Men, blacks, and the educated also own more cell phones in general.)

I hope Claudia doesn't clobber me by saying this, but ... it's not surprising people with the highest incomes own more smartphones. This site addresses the cost of ownership of smartphones:

No, U.S. Smartphone Costs Aren't Highest In The World

Her chart shows that the average cost of a smartphone in the US is about $1260 a year (factoring in voice, data, and text services as well as the device over a 2 year plan). That's just a smartphone. Many people also bear a cost for wiring their homes for internet, TV, and maybe a land-line, as well as hardware to receive those signals ... TVs, computers, game consoles, tablets, more phones. All of that could run $4000+ a year.

This was surprising, from Pew:

"31% of current cell internet users say that they mostly go online using their cell phone, and not using some other device such as a desktop or laptop computer."

Will phone apps become a new dominant portal to the internet? I remember when America Online and CompuServe were the dominate portals to the internet (1990s). Apps and social sites like Facebook and Twitter, to me, are like layers on top of the internet. They aren't the entire internet, they're just roads that take you to a small sliver of it (and advertise en route!).

Here are a couple odd bits from Pew:

"44% of cell owners have slept with their phone next to their bed because they wanted to make sure they didn’t miss any calls, text messages, or other updates during the night."

"29% of cell owners describe their cell phone as “something they can’t imagine living without."

Do you sleep with your phone? Is it something you can't imagine living without?
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