Pew Internet & American Life Project
Info on the Go: Mobile Access to Data and Information
62% of all Americans are part of a wireless, mobile population
According to the Pew Internet Project's December 2007 survey, 58% of adult Americans have used a cell phone or personal digital assistant (PDA) to do at least one of 10 mobile non-voice data activities, such as texting, emailing, taking a picture, looking for maps or directions, or recording video. And 41% of adult Americans have logged onto the internet on the go, that is, away from home or work either with a wireless laptop connection or a handheld device.
Taking account of overlap between the two groups, this means that 62% of all Americans have some experience with mobile access to digital data and tools. That is, they have either used a cell phone or PDA for a non-voice data application or logged on to the internet away from home or work using a wireless laptop connection or with a handheld device or both. The Pew Internet Project's December 2007 survey interviewed a sample of 2,054 adult Americans, which included 500 respondents contacted on their cell phones.
Accompanying this changing nature of access -- no longer slow and stationary, but now fast and mobile -- has been a transformation in how people value their media access tools. When asked how hard it would be to give up a specific technology, respondents are now most likely to say the cell phone would be most difficult to do without, followed by the internet, TV, and landline telephone. This represents a sharp reversal in how people viewed these technologies in 2002.
Leading the way in this world of untethered access are young adult Americans, Hispanics and African Americans. A majority of adults under age 30 and Hispanics would find it hardest to do without their cell phones -- and are much more likely to say it would be hard to be without a cell phone than to be without the internet or email. Hispanics in the United States are a more youthful group than whites or African Americans, but Latinos' attachment to the cell phone stands out even after controlling for age and other demographic and socio-economic factors.
Non-voice data access using handheld devices
The chart shows how the data breaks out for each of the 10 activities asked about relating to non-voice data applications on a cell phone or PDA.
Among the 75% of adult Americans with either a cell phone or a PDA:
- 77% have ever done at least one of the 10 listed handheld activities.
- 42% on a typical day did at least one of the 10 listed handheld activities.
This comes to 58% of all American adults (with or without a cell phone or PDA) who have ever done one of the 10 activities, with 32% of all Americans doing at least one of them on a typical day.
Defining access "on the go"
For internet access on the go, online users were asked how often they use the internet someplace other than home or work. Some 29% of internet users say they do this at least every few weeks, with 21% doing this at least a couple of days a week.
We also asked remaining online users whether they had, in the previous 12 months, gone online away from home or work. Specifically, this question was directed to those who said they had infrequently used the internet away from home or work (22% of internet users) or had not done this (49% of online users).
Combining these two ways of asking about "away from home or work" online use, we find that nearly two-thirds (64%) of internet users have gone online away from home or work, which could include wired access at libraries or in hotel rooms.
Focusing more narrowly on wireless access on the go, respondents were asked whether they had used a wireless internet connection on a laptop computer, a cell phone, or a PDA.1 Adding up those who had said "yes" to any of those questions yielded the result that 52% of internet users have used a wireless connection at one time to go online away from home or work. This translates into 41% of all Americans who have logged on wirelessly away from home.
Hispanics and young adults lead the way with handheld devices
Demographically, the clearest dividing lines for the different handheld activities are age and race. For English-speaking Hispanics, the cell phone is an oft-used and multifaceted device -- more so than is the case for white or black Americans.2
As to access to cell phone technology:
- 84% of English-speaking Hispanics have cell phones.
- 74% of white Americans have cell phones.
- 71% of black Americans have cell phones.
On a typical day, more than half of English-speaking Hispanics do something on their cell phone that might involve sending or receiving data.
Read the full report including further findings, topline questionnaire and methodology.
Notes
1 The structure of the questions was such that respondents who said they had gone online away from home or work in the prior year were not asked specifically whether they used a cell phone or PDA away from home or work to access the internet. However, they were asked whether they had ever used a cell phone or PDA for several internet applications (sending email, instant messages, getting maps or directions, or accessing the internet for news). Those who answered "yes" to those questions are included in the figure above, on the assumption that "yes" respondents had at one time done these handheld access activities away from home or work.
2 This survey was conducted in English. When a Spanish option is provided in survey administration, Spanish-dominant Latinos are found to be less likely to own a cell phone or use the internet. See Latinos Online, Pew Research Center.