

Most Young Adults in U.S. Now Own Smartphones, Survey Says - pjo
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/most-young-americans-now-own-smartphones-survey-says/?ref=technology

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zitterbewegung
I don't (I am 23) am I in the minority now? I wonder what has to happen for
the older generation to adopt smartphones (other than the obvious answer of
the current generation becoming the older one). Don't we see a bunch of apps
and services tailoring to the younger generation? What if we tried targeting
the older generation would that increase adoption?

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bartonfink
I don't either, and although 28 isn't old, I simply don't see the need for
one. I'm a software developer, which means that for nearly all day I'm never
more than about 10 feet away from a computer. I'm married with a family, so I
go out socially maybe once a month. Further, I make plans before I go out, so
there's not much reason to have mobile access to the web. I don't have one
because I simply don't need it.

Honestly, what would drive me to getting a smartphone is a data-only network
so I could use Skype or another VOIP program for my telephony, and then have
data "for free." I pay $140 a month for a family plan with some extras, but
mostly that goes towards voice traffic. A data plan worth having would easily
shoot that over $200 a month, and it's just not worth it.

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cryptoz
I have a smartphone (and tablet) specifically _because_ I'm a software
developer, actually. I am probably an edge case, but I'd assume that not to be
the case in the HN audience: I pretty much never use my smartphone to make
phone calls. In fact, I absolutely hate phone calls and do everything I can to
avoid them. Having a smartphone is perhaps the best way yet invented to avoid
phone calls!

As a software developer, I see the future of our field solidly taking place
inside the ecosystems being built on smartphone platforms today. The fact that
it's a phone or that it goes in your pocket is 100% irrelevant to why
smartphones are interesting or useful from the point of view of a software
developer.

Their OS and ecosystems represent new models of user interaction, new
expectations from software as well as new paradigms in data visualization,
etc. Smartphones are extremely exciting and they have nothing at all to do
with communication with family or phone calls. They are the new computer.

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hessenwolf
I have an android. It's an amazing mini-computer, but a shit phone.

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adriand
I'd love to see the breakdown between iPhone vs. Android by age group.

Another interesting statistic would be the number of people who have
smartphones that use them as smartphones (instead of just as a phone), and how
that breaks down between age groups. Looking at traffic analytics for the
sites I have access to, there are typically 2 to 3 times as many people
browsing the sites using an iPhone than an Android-based device.

~~~
ZeroGravitas
Most surveys show Android as much more popular with youth, with iPhones more
popular with those in their 50s and up.

[http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Smartphones/Section-3/Pl...](http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Smartphones/Section-3/Platform-
differences-in-smartphone-adoption.aspx)

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mikepurvis
I can't tell if that's 62% of users who have any phone at all, or 62% of the
entire demographic. Either way, I guess I'm in the minority-- I'm 25 and don't
actually own any phone at all.

My wife and I share a Motorola W835, which has a minimal plan for emergencies,
etc, but it's predominantly the "car phone", and the car is also hers during
the day. I bike and walk to work, where I have a phone on my desk, so it
seemed redundant to pay for a phone in my pocket as well. I work for a small
company where everyone uses their personal device for work purposes; I'm happy
to wait for work to decide to pay for my device if they need me to have one.

