Mobile phone voice service is, for the most part, a commodity subject to price wars. Mobile carriers have seen this coming for years, and have tried to get users to use their handsets for other things: texting, sharing pictures, video games and the like.
The mobile companies may finally be getting somewhere.
Nearly six out of 10 US adults surveyed said they had used a mobile phone or personal digital assistant (PDA) for at least one key data activity, according to a study conducted in the fourth quarter of 2007 by Pew Internet & American Life Project.
Nearly one-third of mobile users reported sending text messages daily.
Respondents said that, of all their consumer electronics devices, their mobile
phones would be most difficult to do without, followed by the Internet, TV, and landline telephones.
Among young adults, 62% said it would be very hard to do without a mobile phone.
Young respondents to a Deloitte Development-Harrison Group study conducted in October 2007 also had a strong attachment to their mobile phones, judging by their usage. The sample was somewhat different than that studied by Pew, focusing on Internet users rather than mobile users, but the Web-savvy crowd still used their mobile phones for more than just talking.
Nearly 90% of 13-to-24-year-old Internet users surveyed said they sent text messages frequently or occasionally.
Slightly more respondents overall said they used their handsets as cameras than said they used them for texting.
Now that mobile carriers have younger users accustomed to sending texts and sharing pictures, older users may be their next target.
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