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American Road Warriors with Digital Gadgets

Scarborough Research, the firm known for identifying the shopping, media and lifestyle patterns of adults in the United States, released an analysis which finds that people who spend the most time on the road are more tech savvy than the average consumer. And, they buy more digital gadgets.

The country's "Top Road Travelers" have a wide variety of personal and household technologies. Given the amount of time spent on the road, it is clear that this consumer group values digital device portability.

While they are only 17 percent more likely than the average consumer to have a cell phone; they're 40 percent more likely to have a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) in their household; and 21 percent more likely to have an MP3 player in their household.

This consumer group also has a wide variety of home entertainment technologies. They are 23 percent more likely to have HDTV, 15 percent more likely to have a DVD player, and 20 percent more likely to have purchased 10 or more DVDs during the past year.

These road travelers are 23 percent more likely to have a video game system in their household, and 13 percent more likely to have a digital video recorder such as TiVo. Their Internet habits are also consistent with their active and hi-tech lifestyle.

The country's top road travelers are 48 percent more likely than the average consumer to have spent $1,000 or more online during the past year; 17 percent more likely to have broadband, and 28 percent more likely to have spent 20 hours or more online weekly.

Demographically, the Top Road Travelers are a very desirable group to target. They are more affluent (35 percent more likely to have an annual household income of $100,000+); own more expensive homes (11 percent more likely to havea home with a market value of $500k plus), and are more educated (20 percent more likely to have a college degree or advanced degree).

"This analysis demonstrates a very simple but compelling point -- the more time consumers spend on the road, the more likely they are to have the latest media and information technology devices -- MP3 players, DVRs, PDAs, and HDTV," said Carol Edwards, vice president, Out-Of-Home Media Services, Scarborough Research and Arbitron Inc.

"Apple made this connection when they launched the now-iconic iPod campaign, of which out-of-home media was a key component. The research suggests that other personal and entertainment technology brands could benefit from the medium."

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