One in Four Smartphone Owners Mostly Go Online Using Their Phones

According to numbers from a recent survey from the Pew Internet Project, more than a third of American adults own smartphones, and one in four of them go online mostly using their smartphones instead of their computers.

The organization’s first standalone measure of smartphone ownership found that 35 percent of adults in the U.S. own smartphones. In other words, 83 percent of American adults have a cellphone of some kind and 42 percent of this group owns a smartphone, which translates into 35 percent of the total U.S. adult population.

Pew defines smartphone owners as either: 1) those who say their phone is a smartphone (33 percent), or 2) those who say their phone operates on a smartphone platform (39 percent).

The survey also measured how respondents feel about their cellphones and displayed the results in a word cloud. Among the prominent words were “convenient,” “good,” “great,” “excellent,” “satisfied,” “awesome,” “love” and “necessary.”

Pew’s survey also found that some groups were more likely to own smartphones. These included the financially well-off and well-educated, those under the age of 45, and African-Americans and Latinos.

“Urban and suburban residents are roughly twice as likely to own a smartphone as those living in rural areas, and employment status is also strongly correlated with smartphone ownership,” wrote Aaron Smith, senior research specialist for Pew.

Of those who own a smartphone, 87 percent use the Internet or email on those devices, while 68 percent use them to go online on a typical day. Meanwhile, 25 percent of smartphone owners said they go online mostly using their smartphones.

Non-white smartphone owners under the age of 30 with relatively low income and education levels are particularly likely to have said they mostly go online using their phones.

The survey also found that 35 percent of smartphone owners own an Android device, while 24 percent own an iPhone and 24 percent own a BlackBerry. Six percent own a Palm smartphone, while 4 percent own a Windows smartphone.

According to comScore, Apple was the top original equipment manufacturer (OEM) in the U.S. for the three months ending in May with 26.6 percent of the market, followed by RIM with 24.7 percent, HTC with 11.8 percent, Motorola with 11.4 percent and Samsung with 8.9 percent.

Sources:

http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Smartphones/Summary.aspx

http://www.comscoredatamine.com/2011/07/top-smartphone-oems/