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Sunday, August 12, 2012

Smartphones Growing Up

This isn't about what you'd first think - about phones getting older - but about "olders" getting phones.

Apparently I haven't been paying close enough attention to the demos on wireless penetration but I got shaken into reality at a wedding brunch of all places.  It was the morning after a relative's marriage.  All of the out-of-towners who had collected at hotels or the bride's house were in attendance and my best guess is that 70 percent or more were over 65 years old.

All of them carried wireless devices.  And none were bricks.  There were iPhones and Androids and a couple of tablets...and get this:  they talked intelligently about their phones, including one 70+ female being upset about her 4G access.  A bunch were checking email and one punched onto IMDB to settle an argument.  (FYI it was Pat Buttram in Green Acres, not Pat Brady.)

So I got to snooping.  Found one chart (below) which sums things up and really makes you think - once again concentrating on the 18-34's is missing a lot of folks.

Now, granted, the "gotta have the latest" gene may not be developed in the 65+ but they all seemed to have just about the latest.  And, again, they knew how to use them.

I tossed out a couple of questions.  Words with Friends was popular with females, seemed like it was just below the importance of their Facebook interaction.  some guys liked WWF but more were interested in email and finding restaurants.  Hey, maybe the whole "guys don't ask for directions" is going the way of the bag phone. 

So we all may want to rethink penetration.  The percentages within each demo (percent ownership based on income) track almost linearly.  Yes, there's less interest above 65 than among 34 year olds, and the whole article quoted below capitalizes on it... but it's sure there!

Worth a look.

chart of the day, smartphone usage by age and income, july 2012
From BI Intelligence, http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-smartphone-demographics-still-skew-young-and-moneyed-2012-7

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