The power and versatility of new smartphones is eliminating the need to have a laptop or desktop for an increasing number of people. With the right phone, you can do almost anything a personal computer can.

According to J.D. Power and Associates’ 2012 U.S. Wireless Smartphone Customer Satisfaction Study - Volume 2, and the J.D. Power and Associates 2012 U.S. Wireless Traditional Mobile Phone (News - Alert) Satisfaction Study - Volume 2, more people are using mobile devices with greater customer satisfaction.

The study concluded customers who interact with the devices on average spend more than $13 per month on gaming and $12 for mobile social media application than customers who don’t use their phones for this purpose.

The numbers also indicate that in 2012, 67 percent of smartphone customers are spending more than 100 minutes every week using their downloaded social media apps. When it comes to gaming, 69 percent have downloaded games they spend at least 81 minutes per week playing.

"As the capabilities of wireless phones and their applications continue to expand, allowing customers to more often use their device, handset manufacturers have an opportunity to shape the customer experience and impact satisfaction with better application integration and social networking options," said Uma Jha, senior director of mobile devices at J.D. Power and Associates.

Both studies measured customer satisfaction with regular wireless phones and Smartphones with owners who have had their current device for less than one year. Owners have different criteria for what they considered was important in the overall satisfaction of the product.

For smartphone users, 33 percent was for performance, 23 percent design, 22 percent features and 22 percent for the ease of use of the device. For regular wireless users, 29 percent for performance, 26 ease of use, 24 percent design and 21 percent features.

LG was the best regular wireless phone and Apple (News - Alert) topped the smartphone category.

Service providers are pushing smartphones because they have more revenue generating features on them. The study went on to say more people are choosing smartphones because service carriers are providing the phones for free as part of a long-term contract.

Almost half of the customers (47 percent) chose their phone because of features such as social media integration, gaming capability and other multimedia and software features.

Want to learn more about today’s powerful mobile ecosystem? Don't miss the Mobility Tech Conference & Expo, collocated with ITEXPO West 2012 taking place Oct. 2-5 2012, in Austin, TX. Stay in touch with everything happening at Mobility Tech Conference & Expo. Follow us on Twitter.