A reporter for the New Jersey Star-Ledger, Leslie Kwoh, filed a story on Sept. 4, 2011 pointing out that those of us with regular cellphones are soon to be in the minority of cellphone users. In essence the story says that a new wireless revolution is upon us and if you have not joined that revolution it's likely that before too long you will.
The Star-Ledger quotes telecom analyst Roger Entner who wrote a report for Nielsen Research in March of 2010 that said the shift to Smart Phones would be complete in 18 months. Entner now says that his prediction is on target. So within about two months Smart Phones, such as Blackberry, Droid and iPhones, will surpass the usage of traditional cellphones in the United States.
“We’re pretty much on track,” said Entner. “Smart phones will become the new standard, and it will be a new era in wireless.” He didn't give a specific date but "on track" suggests sometime around the end of October, 18 months from his original assessment.
Nielsen Report Shows Smart Phone Rise
As has become the norm in technology, the rise has been rapid. A graph from a Nielsen report shows that toward the end of the first quarter of 2008 Smart Phones were approaching 13 percent of all cells in use in the U.S., 74 percentage points behind traditional cellphones. However, their use increased to the point where in early 2010, 45 percent of respondents told a Nielsen survey that their next cellphone purchase would be a Smart Phone.
They are now the most dominant cell phone purchase, nearly three-quarters of all cells purchased today are Smart Phones, and what's tipping that scale so greatly in favor of Smart Phones, Entner said, is that those buying their first cell are not bothering with the old. "Basically, if you got a new phone recently, odds are you’re getting a smart phone," Entner said.
Smart Phones Making Us...Use Them More
The advent of Smart Phones is responsible for amazing, or alarming, numbers, and Nielsen had provided us with some. For example, the average U.S. teenager sends and receives 3,339 texts each month. What did the older among us do with all our time when we were teens? Further, way back in 2008 the dominate reason for teens to get a cellphone was safety.
Now it's for texting.
And an August survey from TeleNav shows us how much Smart Phones have ingrained themselves in the lives of Americans (and doubtless many other nationalities); the survey found that 1 in 3 Americans would rather give up sex than their mobile phones. The users of iPhones lead the way as those more likely to choose to have a go at their phone.
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