Smartphones are Boom-ing

I recently read an article written about a study which found — gasp! — that Boomers are actually intending to buy a smartphone if they don’t already have one. Although not a Boomer myself, I was still insulted that this tidbit was treated as if it were earth-shattering news.

In reality, for the last three years we have seen the number of Boomers with smartphones increasing dramatically. As a reminder to us all that Boomer is not synonymous with technophobe, let’s go over some of the findings from our latest Digital Consumer Portrait.

Continue Leave a Comment August 4, 2011

Smart Moms Using Smartphones

I know a lot of Moms who can’t remember how they got through the day before owning a smartphone. Seems like the only thing these devices can’t help with is actually cooking food but, who knows, someday there may be an app for that too.

In my last post, I promised to share data on these interesting “smartphone Moms”; specifically, the what, where and how behind their usage and behaviors. This information was garnered from the most recent installment of our Digital Consumer Portrait study, in which we surveyed Moms between the ages of 25 and 54, all with children under 18 living in the home.

It turns out that Moms are heavy smartphone users, which is logical given the number of jobs on their plate. They often tasked with managing everything from extensive family logistics to their own careers. We found that 81 percent of Moms own a mobile phone, and a solid 45 percent own a smartphone. Today, it seems smartphone Moms are leaning slightly more toward Android (17 percent), with Blackberry (10 percent) and iPhones (7 percent) not far behind.

One of the most significant findings is that the majority of smartphone usage among Moms happens in the home. It begs the question “Does this discovery take the ‘mobile’ out of ‘mobile phone’?” because these devices have traditionally been seen as something used on the go.

Continue Leave a Comment July 11, 2011

My Mobile Week

It’s been a busy week for yours truly, the Mobile Maven. But before we head into the weekend, I wanted to share two interesting articles on InsightExpress’ mobile perspective that have come out over the past five days.

On Monday, eMarketer published an article titled “Consumers Expect Mobile Ads to Inform” which mentions InsightExpress’ 2010 Digital Consumer Portrait. As pointed out in the first paragraph, “With mobile advertising on the upswing, marketers must remember that many consumers are still less than thrilled about ads on this very personal device. Catering to their preferences for ad formats and features could help the mobile audience warm up to the usefulness of the channel….”

Then on Thursday, I was asked to speak at MediaPost’s Mobile Insider Summit in Florida (it’s a hard job, but someone has to do it). The presentation, “Research Nugget: Remember the Consumer?” was covered on the RAW blog by Joe Mandese, Editor in Chief at MediaPost, who had some great comments. As I said to the audience yesterday, “The smartphone is now THE PHONE.”

Happy reading,

Joy

Continue Leave a Comment February 4, 2011