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90 percent of adults use at least one mobile device: Study

Nine out of 10 United States adults today use at least one mobile device and 35 percent of mobile phone users now pay $100 a month or more for service, according to Experian Simmons.

Experian Simmons revealed its insight into the divergent and rapidly evolving behaviors and attitudes of mobile consumers in its National Consumer Study. The company evaluated dozens of data points measuring the behaviors and attitudes that consumers have toward mobile communications, information gathering and entertainment.

?Marketers are increasingly looking to mobile as a medium for reaching consumers, but it?s an area that many know relatively little about,? said John Fetto, senior marketing manager at Experian Simmons, Montreal, QC.

?The key feature of the mobile consumer segmentation system is to allow marketers to quickly and easily understand the different types of mobile consumers and identify skews within their specific target audience by tying these segments back to the consumer behavior and psychographic information collected in the Simmons National Consumer Study,? he said. 

Key findings
Experian Simmons found five distinct segments of mobile consumers including mobiriati, social connectors, pragmatic adopters, mobile professionals and basic planners.

Mobiriati, which consists of 19 percent of mobile phone owners, represents the first generation to have grown up with mobile phones. To mobiriati consumers, mobile phones are a central part of their daily life and they cannot imagine life without them.

Consumers who are social connectors ? about 22 percent of mobile phone owners ? find that their mobile phone is the portal they use to keep up to date with friends and social events.

Pragmatic adopters, which also consist of 22 percent of mobile phone owners, are in the early stages of realizing that there is more that they can do with their phone besides making calls.

Seventeen percent of mobile owners are mobile professionals who user their handset to keep up with work and family life. According to the study, a majority of mobile professionals use smartphones.

Basic planners ? 20 percent of mobile phone owners ? are not interested in technology or mobile devices. For them, the basic mobile package serves all their needs.

?Regardless of age, Americans are doing more with their phones today than ever before,? Mr. Fetto said.

?Sure, we see differences among generations with younger consumers who grew up using mobile phones adopting mobile activities like checking email and watching video on mobile phones at higher than average rates.

?Across the spectrum, consumers are increasingly viewing these features as standard functions of a mobile phone even if they use them only occasionally,? he said. ?Our research also identified mobile consumers? propensity to switch service providers. Interestingly, consumers most likely to switch are not those who average the least amount of time with a mobile provider, but those who have been with their provider the longest.

?Consumers who have been with the same provider for 4 years or longer are the most likely to say they?ll switch services for a better plan, better phone or better service.?

Additional findings
In addition, there are currently three mobile consumer psychographic scales available, including:

? Switching Propensity: This factor measures mobile consumers? willingness to switch service providers for a variety of reasons, including improved quality, plan selection and technology.

? Feature Focus: This factor measures the propensity of mobile consumers to place value on new mobile features and technology versus traditional calling functions.

? Traditional Use: Mobile consumers who score above average on this scale would prefer to use a landline phone over their mobile and also lean toward having only a basic calling plan.

?This year may be the year that mobile video really takes off and market penetration is something that Experian Simmons is closely monitoring,? Mr. Fetto said. ?Mass adoption of mobile video has the potential to have a significant impact on other media from television to film to even traditional Internet use and marketers need to know how to leverage it.?

?We also believe that GPS-integrated devices will present marketers with an opportunity to go hyper-local in marketing to consumers precisely when and where they are most likely to influence their behavior? he said.