Over half of US adults who only use a mobile phone are younger than 30, according to a Harris Interactive study conducted between October and December 2006. In fact, a third of 18-to-29-year-olds use only a mobile phone or the Internet for their calls.
Over eight in 10 US adults said they had a landline phone, and over three-quarters said they had a mobile phone. About one in six used the Internet (VoIP). Only 2% said they did not have phone service at all.
About six in 10 US adults used multiple approaches to making telephone calls. Just less than one in five used only a landline phone, 11% used only their cellphone and 2% used only VoIP.
Mobile-phone-only users tended to be male and better educated, but less affluent than the general adult population.
The mobile-only population is important, because US mobile customers are starting to use their handsets for more than simply talking. Text messaging has taken off in the US, with nearly 90% of those responding to a November 2006 ROI Research survey commissioned by Bluestreak saying they had started to text.
A separate October 2006 Harris study revealed that 20% of mobile Internet users preferred to receive product and service recommendations through text, as opposed to 13% who preferred mobile banner ads and 5% who preferred telemarketing.
Learn more about the mobile marketing opportunity. Read the eMarketer Mobile Marketing and Advertising report.