TMCnet Feature

Some 87 percent of smart phone owners said they access the Internet or email on their handheld devices, including 68 percent who do so on a typical day. When asked what device they normally use to access the Internet, 25 percent of smart phone owners say that they mostly go online using their phone, rather than with a computer.

That is probably a more-significant finding than that 35 percent of all U.S. adults use smart phones. The reason is that, as was the case for tablets, widespread adoption of the newer technology has uncovered some important trends in end user behavior. 

Relatively significant use of tablets in a business context suggests that many workers actually do not need all the features of a PC, in many settings during the day. The Pew (News - Alert) results suggest further that many of the Internet access requirements people have can be addressed by small screen devices. 

That, in turn, suggests that even in the U.S. market, where fixed-line broadband is plentiful, there still might be some users who will prefer, or will have to, rely on wireless broadband on their smart phones, instead of a fixed connection. That has long been thought to be the case for many developing nations and regions. 

But the Pew study suggests it might also be true for some significant percentage of the U.S. population as well. 

While many of these smart phone users have other sources of online access at home, roughly a third of these “cell mostly” Internet users lack a high-speed home broadband connection. 

Smart phone owners under the age of 30, non-white smart phone users, and smart phone owners with relatively low income and education levels are particularly likely to say that they mostly go online using their phones.

But there are other scenarios where smart phone-based broadband access is preferred, even when income is not the issue. The author regularly commutes between two residences 1500 miles apart. At one location there is a full complement of wired services, ranging from cable TV to fixed line phone. At the other location, there are no fixed-line services at all. 

Though it is mostly a matter of current offer and features, and is subject to change, video is by satellite at the “wireless only” location. 

All voice and broadband services at the wireless-only location are by smart phones, including the Wi-Fi hotspot function that drives the PCs at that location. Would a fixed line connection be “better” than either the HSPA+ or WiMAX (News - Alert) access devices can provide? Yes. Is it necessary, for the two weeks a month or less that I actually am at that location? No. 

The point is that there are often reasons for smart phone only broadband access. Faster mobile speeds, and the ability to use a smart phone as a Wi-Fi router, are among the reasons. 

The Pew Internet Project study also found that 35 percent of all U.S. adults own smart phones. That is based on a May 2011 survey which found that 83 percent of U.S. adults have a cell phone of some kind, and that 42 percent of them own a smartphone. That translates into 35 percent of all adults.

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