08-26-2005, 03:30 PM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 10,981
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Text Messages - The Killer App for Teenagers Cellphones
"Parents should not be surprised if cell phones top their teenagers' back-to-school shopping lists this year, advises IDC. A recent IDC and SMS.ac survey of nearly 8,000 U.S. teens, ages 13 to 18 who use mobile phones, suggests that many in this age group perceive a cell phone as a social necessity � 35.9% of teens acquired their phones mainly to use text messaging while an additional 13.3% acquired them to talk with friends. IDC's study also indicates that cell phone usage drivers differ between teen boys and girls. Girls were more likely than boys to have purchased cell phones in order to call their family or to use in emergency situations, while boys preferred to call their friends. Boys were also more inclined than girls to use text messaging on their cell phones � girls, more than boys, preferred talking directly to their friends over text messaging them."
While the current cellphone battle seems to be raging around always on email, teenagers are getting cellphones for one of the more basic features - text messages. Ok, so it's not as basic as talking, but it's still up there. The results are not really much of a surprise when you consider that teenagers typically don't have access to always on email system, and all they typically want to do is talk to their friends anyway. I would be surprised if the study found that most bought their phones for it's multimedia functionality, or perhaps it's ability to sync nicely with the desktop. I wonder how many bought their phone because it just looked cool. :wink: You know what, I would also like to see the same questions asked to 20-29 year olds, and 30-39 year olds. It would be interesting to see the differences, don't you think? 
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"I have no special talents, I am only passionately curious" - Albert Einstein |
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