“On a typical day, more than half of English-speaking Hispanics (56%) do something on their cell phone that might involve sending or receiving data.” (Blacks, 50%; whites 38%)
Also, a majority (65%) of English-speaking Hispanics and African Americans (54%) have used a handheld device or laptop to access the internet away from home or work—compared to only 49% of white net users.
A related Pew research memo also released this month, indicated that mobile content and services may have more fast-growth potential than online services that require a computer:
Mobile is becoming THE must-have media.
Another intriguing trend that crosses race lines: According to Pew, 54% of English-speaking Hispanics, 51% of African Americans, and 49% of whites polled said their cell phone would be the hardest media tool to give up—making it the top priority across all three racial groups.
It’s about age, too.
According to Pew, 73% of people 18-29 perform at least one non-voice mobile activity on a typical day. For ages 30-49, this drops to 57%; for 50-64, 23%; and just 9% for 65+.
“Roughly the same share of ‘under age 30’ adults (60%) on the average day use a handheld device for text messaging as sends or receives e-mail (62%). These numbers suggest that, while alternative forms of digital chatter (e.g., texting) are important to young adults, e-mail remains a part of their daily electronic communication activities, although it may be less central for young adults as other applications compete for their attention.”
Wealth is not necessarily an advantage.
Apparently, earning $20-40K per year is the current sweet spot. In this income bracket, 23% have ever done at least one of the 10 non-voice mobile activities examined by Pew—with 21% doing at least one of these activities on a typical day. Those are the highest percentages for any income bracket covered in this study.
The ‘burbs love mobile.
Across all age, income, and ethnicity groups, more suburbanites (45%) tend to do non-voice mobile activities daily. This is just slightly ahead of urbanites (43%), with rural dwellers lagging at just 12%.
What can mobile mean for your news org
Looking over this information, most news organizations that wish to reach out more effectively to communities which are not primarily white or wealthy might benefit over the long term by making mobile media at least as high a priority as their online efforts.
Do you agree with this assessment? How is your news org faring with its mobile strategy? What barriers are hindering progress on this front? Who else might grab the mobile content market locally, if not your news org? Please comment below.
“Cell phone users are more likely to be found in groups that have generally lagged in internet adoption, such as senior citizens, blacks, and Latinos. In our December 2007 survey, 50% of Americans age 65 and over had cell phones compared with 36% who used the internet. Some 84% of English-speaking Hispanics reported having cell phones and 71% of blacks had cell phones, compared with 78% and 63%, respectively, for online access.
“More striking than access patterns is usage. For use of non-voice data applications on handhelds, Hispanics and African Americans lead the way relative to white Americans. Half of African Americans and 56% of English-speaking Latinos with cell phones, on a typical day, do at least one of 10 non-voice data applications such as taking pictures, accessing the internet for news, playing music, or texting. By contrast, 38% of whites do these kinds of activities on a wireless handheld device on the average day.
“Even lower-income Americans with cell phones (61%) are active in using non-voice data applications on cell phones; 44% of cell users in households with incomes below $30,000 annually do one such non-voice data activity on a typical day.
Want more details? Check out Pew’s Mar. 5 full report on Mobile Access to Data and Information
Do these numbers surprise you? They surprised me!
Based on this information, do you think you’re using mobile offerings effectively to reach currently under-served populations in your news coverage area?
Currently a very small number of people use mobile TV in the United States. When comparing it to countries like South Korea, where 1 in 7 people are active Mobile TV users, we are pretty behind in the times. However, looking at the United States as a whole, we are not a country who is big on public transportation. Therefore, the things we need on a mobile platform are inherently different.
Also in some ways, current mobile TV is going against the current trends in television. People want to watch television on their own schedule… so what good is to have a mobile TV if all you get is commercials? or for that matter, that boring early afternoon programming? By the time all the good shows come on, the majority of the people are already home. If these mobile TV companies could come up with some kind of on demand system, where you get to pick what shows your mobile phone gets, that would definitely be worth looking at.
Overall, it doesn’t seem that mobile TV is going to catch up in the US any time soon. If the companies want to reach an audience past the 20-something year old techie, they will have to come up with innovative programming that will surpass anything we have currently seen.
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