Skip to main content

Many Young Americans Only Use a Cell Phone

While mobile phones are widely used across most segments of the U.S. adult population, this is especially true for those under 30 years old. Remarkably, over half of U.S. adults who only use a cell phone are under 30. And, furthermore, one-third of 18 to 29 year olds only use a cell phone or the Internet for making phone calls.

These are some of the results of a special analysis of three Harris Poll surveys conducted online between October and December 2006 by Harris Interactive. In total 6,748 U.S. adults were surveyed.

I believe that these latest findings are further evidence that most U.S. mobile phone service providers are missing a huge revenue opportunity -- by not engaging more young Americans to use their cell phone to access value added services (VAS). Furthermore, the implied lost opportunity for American advertisers to connect with this important segment of the market is perhaps the greater disappointment.

Specifically, The Harris Poll study uncovered the following:

- Over eight in ten (81 percent) U.S. adults say that they have a landline phone and over three-quarters (77 percent) say that that they have a wireless or cell phone.

- About one is six (16 percent) of U.S. adults use the Internet, sometimes referred to as VoIP of Voice-Over-Internet-Protocol, to make telephone calls.

- About 98 percent of all adults have some form of telephone service with the remaining two percent saying that they do not have phone service at all.

- Just under one in five (18 percent) of all U.S. adults only use a landline phone; Eleven percent (11 percent) are only using their cell phone and two percent (2 percent) are only using the Internet (VoIP); and Five percent (5 percent) are only using either a cell phone or VoIP.

When we study the profile of "cell phone only" users, an interesting profile emerges.

They are much younger than the general U.S. adult population. Over half of people (55 percent) who say they only use a cell phone are ages 18 to 29 -- as compared to 22 percent of the U.S. adult population who are 18 to 29. Furthermore, this translates into a third (32 percent) of 18 to 29 year olds who say they only use a cell phone (26 percent), only VoIP (3 percent) or VoIP and a cell phone (4 percent).

Harris says that there are two implications to this research. First, new technologies are often first adopted by younger segments. However, the rapid adoption rates we are seeing here will likely reshape the entire communications landscape within the next decade.

Second, the fact that so many 18 to 29 years are "only using cell phones and the Internet" has important implications for companies and other organizations that are trying to communicate with this important segment of the population.

This also hold true with those who conduct survey research who have previously relied on traditional methods (i.e., telephone landlines) for reaching this group. Harris also says that the survey research and marketing industries need to recognize that the Internet and cell phones -- not landlines -- are the primary communication channel for contacting this age group.

Popular posts from this blog

AI Semiconductor Revenue will Reach $119.4B

The Chief Information Officer (CIO) and/or the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) will guide Generative AI initiatives within the large enterprise C-Suite. They may already have the technical expertise and experience to understand the capabilities and limitations of Gen AI. They also have the authority and budget to make the necessary investments in infrastructure and talent to support Gen AI initiatives. Enterprise AI infrastructure is proven to be expensive to build, operate and maintain. That's why public cloud service provider solutions are often used for new AI use cases. AI Semiconductor Market Development Semiconductors designed to execute Artificial Intelligence (AI) workloads will represent a $53.4 billion revenue opportunity for the global semiconductor industry in 2023, an increase of 20.9 percent from 2022, according to the latest worldwide market study by Gartner. "The developments in generative AI and the increasing use of a wide range AI-based applications in data c

Industrial Cloud Computing Apps Gain Momentum

In the manufacturing industry, cloud computing can help leaders improve their production efficiency by providing them with real-time data about their operations. This has gained the attention of the C-suite. Total forecast Industrial Cloud platform revenue in manufacturing will surpass $300 billion by 2033 with a CAGR of 22.57 percent, driven by solution providers enhancing platform interoperability while expanding partner ecosystems for application development. ABI Research found the cloud computing manufacturing market will grow over the next decade due to the adoption of new architectural frameworks that enhance data extraction and interoperability for manufacturers looking to maximize utility from their data. Industrial Cloud Computing Market Development "Historically, manufacturers have built out their infrastructure to include expensive data housing in the form of on-premises servers. The large initial upfront cost of purchasing, setting up, and maintaining these servers is

Demand for Quantum Computing as a Service

The enterprise demand for quantum computing is still in its early stages, growing slowly. As the technology becomes more usable, we may see demand evolve beyond scientific applications. The global quantum computing market is forecast to grow from $1.1 billion in 2022 to $7.6 billion in 2027, according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). That's a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 48.1 percent. The forecast includes base Quantum Computing as a Service, as well as enabling and adjacent Quantum Computing as a Service. However, this updated forecast is considerably lower than IDC's previous quantum computing forecast, which was published in 2021, due to lower demand globally. Quantum Computing Market Development In the interim, customer spend for quantum computing has been negatively impacted by several factors, including: slower than expected advances in quantum hardware development, which have delayed potential return on inve