Smartphones popular even among poor youths
It’s no shock to discover that younger people are most likely to own smartphones. But a new survey has found that youngsters on very low incomes have probably got a smartphone.
The survey was conducted by Nielsen among 20,000 mobile users. That does slightly distort the results as people without any form of cellphone are left out, though that’s a very small percentage of the population these days, and likely neglible among younger adults.
The results, broken down by both age and income brackets told a consistent and somewhat predictable story. For those aged over 25, the more a person earned, the more likely to have a smartphone, and the older they were, the less likely to have one.
The only real exception is for the 18-24 category, where those earning $75,000 or more are less likely to own smartphones than their 25-34 counterparts. That may simply be that people that age earning so much are such a rare breed that they don’t fall into “normal” behavioral patterns.
Trends aside, it’s the raw numbers that stand out. In every income bracket among 18-24s, a majority of phone users are now running a smartphone. The figure is 56 percent even among those earning less than $15,000 a year. Given the minimum wage, that means people who are working part time or not at all.
While that category includes unemployed people, it seems a fair bet the figure is swayed by college students. Still, it’s certainly telling that a smartphone appears for many to be a must-have even when income are tight.
Nielsen also compiled separate figures for those who’d bought a new phone in the past three months, which gives a clear insight into the long term story. Aside from those aged over 65, the majority in every age group are opting for smartphones when they get a new handset. Among both 18-24s and 25-34s, smartphones are the choice for 80 percent of new buyers.
February 27th, 2012
That is very interesting. Of course, smartphones are almost all internet capable, and with the many things that we can do on them today, it’s no wonder that everyone is getting one. Smartphones have many abilities for one price, rather than paying money for each separate service. For example, the internet connection on the phone is good enough for most people to surf the web as needed. Another example is since there are many services that let you stream TV, then why have cable? Then there is also GPS abilities, so there is no need for maps or another unit. Basically, the smartphone is becoming more convenient by being able to do all of the things that users would have had to pay for separately on one device.