How are iPhone owners different? Forrester counts the ways
Owners of Apple (AAPL) iPhones who hold down jobs — as opposed, presumably, to those who go to school, are between jobs or live off the proceeds of their trust funds — are more than twice as likely to access the Internet from their phone as working Americans who own Research in Motion (RIMM) BlackBerries, Palm (PALM), or Microsoft (MSFT) Windows Mobile devices, according to a report issued Friday by Forrester Research.
Based on a mail survey of 61,033 Americans fielded in February and March 2008 — back when iPhones started at $499 (not $99) and had only been available for six months — the study found "a quantitative difference in what working iPhone owners do."
In particular, the authors found that:
- Working iPhone owners are more than twice as likely to use the mobile Internet. While only 9% of mobile phone owners and 38% of all working smartphone owners access the Internet from their phone at least weekly, a massive 78% of working iPhone owners do so.
- Mobile email and texting are much more common among working iPhone owners. Whereas one in two working smartphone owners sends mobile email at least weekly, more than three in four working iPhone owners do so. And 80% of working iPhone owners text weekly in contrast with 60% of working smartphone owners and 36% of working mobile phone owners.
- Households that own iPhones spend more on mobile bills than the average mobile household. Working iPhone owners as a group spend $87 on their household mobile phone bills monthly, while all working smartphone households spend $76 and working mobile phone households spend $66 per month.
- Working iPhone owners are twice as likely as all mobile users to go online in public. In addition to home and work, the two most common places to go online, more than a third of working iPhone owners go online outside or in another public place. This is twice as many as all working mobile phone owners (17%) and nine percentage points higher than all working smartphone owners (26%).
- Fifty percent are more likely to read a blog weekly. Twenty-three percent of working iPhone owners read a blog at least weekly, whereas only 16% of working smartphone owners and 11% of working mobile owner owners do so. This blogging difference extends to maintaining a blog as well, where working iPhone owners are almost twice as likely to do so.
- A third are more likely to maintain a social networking profile weekly. Twenty-six percent of working iPhone owners maintain profiles on social networks, while only 19% of working smartphone owners and 14% of working mobile phone owners do.
- Twenty percent are more likely to use instant messaging weekly. Forty-four percent of working iPhone owners uses instant messaging at least weekly versus 37% of working smartphone owners and 24% of all working mobile phone owners.
- More working iPhone owners telecommute and access the network from home. Twenty-eight percent of working iPhone owners telecommute regularly, and 42% regularly access an employer’s network from a computer while at home. This is a greater percentage than is found among working smartphone owners, where only 20% telecommute regularly and 34% access an employer’s network regularly from home.
- Although more connected to work, fewer iPhone owners bring laptops home. Despite this greater tendency to telecommute and access an employer’s network from home, working iPhone owners are less likely to bring a work laptop home (36%) compared with all working smartphone owners (42%).
The full report is available here as a downloadable PDF for $749 — with a three-week money-back guarantee.
Below the fold: A sample graphic showing that iPhone owners are younger and richer than the general smartphone population.
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As posted on as many boards that I can post until Monday, I urge all who read this follow suit and post on your respective stock boards. My request seems only fair since many of us don’t have the “clout” or should I say “paid positioning” the The Street has to get their trash posted as “journalism”.. It is obvious that the removal of TSCM from the Russell list is the beginning of the end for The Street and their contributors and some network affiliates. In my “freedom of speech” opinion, their actions over the course of several months may have finally given the SEC a solid platform to begin investigations. The Jon Stewart interview and Congressional requests for inquires of Jim Cramer may have highlighted the boiler room stock manipulation, which once was presumed a myth, is in fact alive and well both behind closed doors , within family circles, and promoted by so call experts such as in Adam Feuerstein and quite possibly some celebrity figureheads on several CNBC shows. In a recent article written to bash Hemispherx Bio (HEB) , Adam responded to a readers blog with total irreverence to the SEC and FTC referring to them as three letter organizations that he apparently has little to fear from. We as investors and Americans demand that the SEC begin investigating the complaints received and not bury these complaints under “political rugs” and bureaucratically convenient rhetoric. My personal request to the SEC is to freeze the funds of certain individuals and have a team on investigators dig deep into transfers and transaction to possibly uncover illegal price manipulation and laundering of accounts both here in the US and internationally. It would also be prudent for true journalists to admonish individuals much like Adam Feuerstein who hide behind a freedom that should never be tarnished by coercion to seemingly promote personal gain at the expense legitimate investors. Only time will tell….and the time is NOW
@Truthseeker
Your comment is why you will fail. Your failure to recognize that the iPhone and other devices like it will become ubiquitous is profound. Go back to your polygamous compound in Utah and hide.
Why would Forrester only now release this study? Did somebody lose the thumbdrive that had all the data on it, and finally find it under their couch cushions? A study of smartphone habits and usage based on data from 15 months ago is so dated that I cannot figure out how it is at all relevant – except to acknowledge that way back then, Apple's iPhone was the king of smartphones, just as it is today. I guess it's a mildly interesting historical document….
Why did it take so long to publish this? I'd consider the data to be too old to be of much value, especially as the iPhone price came down 50% to $199 and then another 50% to $99. So yes, it was good snapshot of the early days, but the market and devices have since changed in many significant ways.
If this doesn't prove that iphone and Mac dweebs have nothing better to do than waste time, nothing will. Toys for children
Chicken-and-egg:
Are people more connected ("Web 2.0") more likely to buy/use iPhones, or do iPhones encourage their owners to be more active/connected?
My guess is it's some of each, but mostly the former.
iPhone users are online more since they must buy a Data plan. It is just that simple. If you are paying for a Data plan, you will just use it.