2010 Mobile Access survey shows "more people doing more things on their cell phones"

July 9, 2010

Mobile Activities: 2010 versus 2009

Mobile trends continue to show in 2010 that people are talking less yet doing more with their mobile phones and devices. According to the latest report from the Pew Research Center, their 2010 Mobile Access Survey shows that now 38% of users access the internet on their mobile device. However, the two mobile activities people do the most include: taking pictures on their phone (76%) and sending or receiving text messages (72%).

Other popular activities by mobile users include:
34% Play a Game
34% Send/Receive an Email
33% Play Music
30% Send/Receive IM
34% Record a Video (quickly growing)

Compared to April 2009, 76% of people take pictures with their phones, up from 66% and 72% send/receive text messages compared to 65% in 2009. Other comparisons include: over a third play games, up from about a quarter. A third of people now play music on their phones, compared to 21% in 2009, but the biggest jump is in recording video: 34% vs. 19% before. Given the number of new video-enabled phones released throughout the last year, it is expected this will grow to the heights of pictures.

Additional mobile activities are now being tracked. Among all cell phone owners:
* 54% have used their mobile device to send someone a photo or video
* 23% have accessed a social networking site using their phone
* 20% have used their phone to watch a video
* 15% have posted a photo or video online
* 11% have purchased a product using their phone
* 11% have made a charitable donation by text message
* 10% have used their mobile phone to access a status update service such as Twitter

Mobile Internet usage growing.
Nearly 89 million people in the U.S. have used the mobile internet in the past year — close to one third of the total current U.S. population.

Pew also found that 53 percent of Americans who use their phones to go online do so at least once per day. That’s more than 47 million daily mobile internet users in the U.S.

One would think that these growth numbers come solely from the increase in smartphones. And while there certainly is a bump, consumers are using more mobile internet even on their regular cell phone. According to Forrester Research, by the end of 2009 only 17 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers owned smartphones. So while the iPhone and Android user consumes more mobile web, the average user using newer feature phones are also hitting the mobile web in droves.

Mobile Web Usage by Demographic:

African-Americans and Hispanics leading mobile usage trends
When we break out mobile web usage by demographic, you find 46 percent of non-Hispanic blacks and 51 percent of English-speaking Hispanics using their phones for internet access, compared with only 33 percent of non-Hispanic white Americans.

The survey also found cell phone ownership is higher among African-Americans and Latinos than among whites (87% vs. 80%) and minority cell phone owners take advantage of a much greater range of their phones’ features compared with white mobile phone users.

Mobile Web Usage by Age

About 65 percent of U.S. cell phone users ages 18-29 go online from their phones, compared with 43 percent of those aged 30-49. Young adults are heavily invested in the mobile web, although 30-49 year olds are gaining ground.

Nine in ten 18-29 year olds own a cell phone, and these young cell owners are significantly more likely than those in other age groups to engage in all of the mobile data applications we asked about in our survey. Among 18-29 year old cell phone owners:

* 95% send or receive text messages
* 93% use their phone to take pictures
* 81% send photos or videos to others
* 65% access the internet on their mobile device
* 64% play music on their phones
* 60% use their phones to play games or record a video
* 52% have used their phone to send or receive email
* 48% have accessed a social networking site on their phone
* 46% use instant messaging on their mobile device
* 40% have watched a video on their phone
* 33% have posted a photo or video online from their phone
* 21% have used a status update service such as Twitter from their phone
* 20% have purchased something using their mobile phone
* 19% have made a charitable donation by text message

Although young adults have the highest levels of mobile data application use among all age groups, utilization of these services is growing fast among 30-49 year olds. Compared with a similar point in 2009, cell owners ages 30-49 are significantly more likely to use a range of mobile data applications on a handheld device.

The mobile data applications with the largest year-to-year increases among the 30-49 year old cohort include taking pictures (83% of 30-49 year old cell owners now do this, a 12-point increase from 2009); recording videos (39% do this, an 18-point increase from 2009); playing music (36% do this, a 15-point increase); using instant messaging (35% now do this, a 14-point increase); and accessing the internet (43% now do this, a 12-point increase compared with 2009).

For more information, click here: Pew Internet Research 2010 Mobile Access Survey

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