The mobile phone is important to connected consumers and continues to be a popular entertainment device, according to Deloitte.

One-third of surveyed consumers use their mobile phone as an entertainment device and 47 percent of smartphone owners identify the device as one of their three most valuable media and entertainment products ? a significant increase from 20 percent last year. These are the key findings of Deloitte?s 2009 ?State of the Media Democracy? survey.

?Decoupling the Internet experience from the desktop allows new activities like mobile search, mobile purchasing, mobile advertising and mobile social networking (all online activities that were formerly desktop-centered),? said Ed Moran, director of insights and innovation at Deloitte, New York. 

?The data suggest that we can expect to see significant numbers of people using their smart phones to scan product bar codes, use location-based services to find nearby sales and using their mobile browsers to tap into user recommendation sites from the road to research purchases,? he said.

?They will also be able to interact, via social networking apps  in real time with friends on their location, activities and planned activities.?

Forty-eight percent of those surveyed have data plans for their mobile phones and 42 percent are using their phones to access the Internet.

This decoupling is expected to facilitate new consumer behavior including mobile search, social networking and purchasing.

The online shopping experience is already beginning to translate to the mobile device, with 15 percent of consumers purchasing products on their phone.

Some of the most popular mobile activities, according to the survey include: text messaging (72 percent), accessing the Internet (42 percent), online search (30 percent), downloading applications (27 percent) and using GPS (26 percent).

The wide range of activities being conducted on the mobile phone is strikingly similar to what people typically do on their laptops and desktop PCs.

Forty-seven percent of U.S. consumers state their smartphone is one of their three most valuable media and entertainment products, ranking it as No. 4 among owners ? up from No. 10 last year.

Thirty-seven percent of U.S. consumers  believe it would be extremely/very desirable to have a feature on their mobile phone that would allow them to locate shops, restaurants and hotels.

Consistently over the last three years, roughly a third of U.S. consumers use their mobile phone as an entertainment device.

?Mobile marketing will become increasingly important as more purchase research and purchasing will be occurring on the mobile device,? Mr. Moran said.

?Although much of this marketing will likely involve simply moving conventional online advertising to the mobile device, mobile marketing will also include creating mobile apps that use the purchaser?s location, knowledge of the purchaser?s prior behaviors and stored payment information to facilitate purchasing for people on the move,? he said.

?As mobile marketing becomes more tribal (i.e., marketing in conjunction with the target customers? peers and friends), user ratings, recommendations and knowledge-sharing will become increasingly important aspects of the marketing process.?