Nearly a third of Americans prefer texting over talking

By Mike Flacy September 19, 2011

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According to a recently released study by Pew Internet, thirty-one percent of Americans would rather communicate through texting on a mobile phone rather than speaking with someone over the same phone. Young adults are the most common group that prefers this method of communication and the average of the survey group was about 110 texts per day while the median of that group clocked in at about 50 texts per day. One in ten young adults between the ages of 18 to 24 report that they send or receive at least 200 text messages per day (approximately 6,0o0 messages per month). The next age group, 25-34 year olds, typically average about 42 texts per day and this trend continues to decrease down to about 5 texts a day for the 65 and older group.

Specific to ethnicity, African Americans and Hispanics are more likely to use texting, the median being about 20 text messages per day. Regarding household income and education levels, households making less than $30,000 a year where most likely to send text messages as well as people who didn’t complete high school. People that send or receive more than 51 text messages per day overwhelmingly preferred to be contacted though texting. Only 27 percent of that group prefer a voice call. However, 70% of the group that receive less than 10 texts per day prefer speaking with someone over the phone over trading text messages.

This data corresponds to an earlier study performed by Lab 42 that asked 500 teenagers about texting habits. Over 70 percent of that group preferred communicating through text message over a phone call and over 34 percent of that group spoke on the phone more than 15 minutes per day. Over 50 percent of teenagers use text messages to send pictures multiple times per month and they typically text while at home or browsing the computer. When it comes to apps, teenage boys primarily use smartphones mostly to play games, while teenage girls use smartphones for browsing social networks like Facebook.

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Contributing Editor

By day, I'm the content and social media manager for High-Def Digest, Steve's Digicams and The CheckOut on Ben's Bargains…

Mobile

Starbucks mobile apps account for 26 million transactions over 2011

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Launched during January 2011, Starbucks Mobile Pay allows customers of the coffee chain to make purchases with an iPhone, Android phone or BlackBerry using a mobile application. The initial launch allows customers to make mobile payments at approximately 6,800 Starbucks locations as well as 1,000 Target locations. However, this number has climbed to 10,000 locations over the past eleven months by adding Safeway Starbucks stores and locations in Canada. Nine weeks after the company initially launched the apps, Starbucks processed three million mobile payments. In the past nine weeks, the company has processed approximately six million mobile payments, double the volume of the initial nine weeks. In total, the company has processed 26 million transactions since launch.
While Starbucks won't divulge how many people have downloaded the mobile application across the various smartphone platforms, Adam Brotman, senior vice president and general manager of Starbucks digital ventures, did say that over 90 percent of the people that downloaded the app have used it at least once. Cities with the highest percentage of people using a smartphone at the register include Chicago, San Francisco, New York, San Jose and Seattle. Brotman also mentioned that mobile devices make up 10 percent of digital gift card purchases. Customers are also using the mobile app to reload physical gift cards and have added over $100 million to the cards in the past eleven months.
The mobile payment program is expanding in January 2012 and will roll out at 700 locations in the United Kingdom. Starbucks doesn't have any current plans for an application on Windows phones, but is watching the development of that application store as well as the growth of the Kindle Fire for potential areas of expansion. Starbucks is planning to update the application in the coming weeks across all three platforms. If you are interested in learning how to make purchases at Starbucks with your iPhone, check out our guide here.

Mobile

Online Black Friday spending is up nearly 25 percent over last year

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According to an IBM Benchmark study released today, online shopping during both Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday saw a sizable increase in spending over 2010. Specifically, online sales increased by 24.3 percent on Black Friday and rose by 39.3 percent on Thanksgiving Day. The large increase in Thanksgiving Day sales is likely attributed to stores like Best Buy and Amazon offering discounts on merchandise before Black Friday even started. In addition, traffic on mobile devices rose from 5.6 percent in 2010 to just over 14 percent this year. This can be attributed to many price comparison apps, like RedLaser, that allow users to scan the bar code of an item and compare prices both on the Internet and local stores.
Sales on mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones shot up from about 3 percent in 2010 to nearly 10 percent this year. The most popular mobile device to use when making purchases was the iPad as it had double the conversion rate over the average on other mobile devices. While the iPad and the iPhone were the two most popular devices for browsing online sales, Android devices came in at third place for online mobile shopping. Social networks that referred users to shopping sites comprised less than one percent of all online sales on Black Friday, but Facebook was the clear leader in social referral traffic with 75 percent of all visits coming from the social network.
However, discussion volume on social networks rose by 110 percent over the previous year. The most common topics discussed included wait times, parking issues and concern about products being out-of-stock when the customer got to the front of the time. There was also positive discussion around the announced Cyber Monday sales that go into effect on November 28. Thanksgiving Day online sales peaked between 4 p.m. and 11 p.m. this year while Black Friday online sales peaked between 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Mobile

Nearly 7 percent of U.S. traffic comes from handheld devices

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According to a new report from comScore, non-computer U.S. traffic has increased to nearly seven percent over August 2011. This type of traffic is mostly attributed to smartphones as well as tablets and other handheld devices. It does not include desktop computers or personal notebooks. Smartphones made up about 64 percent of non-computer U.S. traffic and tablets made up about 28 percent of that segment. Apple iOS devices dominated both categories as well. The Apple iPad constitutes just over 97 percent of traffic from tablets and iOS-enabled smartphones made up 58.5 percent of all smartphone traffic in regards to OS market share by digital traffic.
Also measured by digital traffic, Google Android came in second for mobile traffic at nearly 32 percent and the closest competitor was RIM's BlackBerry with 5 percent of mobile traffic. The remaining mobile traffic is attributed to all other operating systems on the market. When measuring OS market share by audience installed base, Apple iOS falls to about 43 percent of the market with Google Android close behind at 34 percent. RIM makes up about 15 percent and other operating systems make up the remaining 8 percent.
In addition to measuring traffic and the installed base of each platform, comScore dived into data around owners of tablets and typical uses for the mobile devices. According to the report, about 30 percent of tablet owners are between 25 to 34 years old and nearly 55 percent of all tablet owners are male. In addition, households that are taking in over $100,000 a year comprise about 46 percent of all tablet owners. About 60 percent of all tablet owners use the device to access and update social media as well as browse through the latest news stories. However, less than half of all tablet owners have purchased something from a site like Amazon through the touchscreen interface on the tablet.