by Aaron Smith
July 11, 2011, Pew Internet and American Life Project
"In its first standalone measure of smartphone ownership, the Pew Internet Project finds that one third of American adults – 35 percent – own smartphones. The Project’s May survey found that 83 percent of US 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."
Our definition of a smartphone owner includes anyone who falls into either of the following two categories:
- One-third of cell owners (33 percent) say that their phone is a smartphone.
- Two in five cell owners (39 percent) say that their phone operates on a smartphone platform (these include iPhones and Blackberry devices, as well as phones running the Android, Windows or Palm operating systems).
- Several demographic groups have high levels of smartphone adoption, including the financially well-off and well-educated, non-whites, and those under the age of 45.
"Some 87 percent of smartphone owners access the internet or email on their handheld, including two-thirds (68 percent) who do so on a typical day. When asked what device they normally use to access the internet, 25 percent of smartphone owners say that they mostly go online using their phone, rather than with a computer. While many of these individuals have other sources of online access at home, roughly one third of these 'cell mostly' internet users lack a high-speed home broadband connection."
