Chocolate is one of the most popular items that people enjoy eating. Total sales of chocolate in the United States is approximately $20B with per capita consumption of chocolate is about 12 pounds per year. So what does this have to do with smartphones?
Mobile Phone Adoption
Well, a new report on mobile phone use has been recently released. Based on the people surveyed by Bank of America, 34% would give up chocolate (less women would give up the chocolate). A higher percentage of respondents said they would be willing to give up alcohol rather than their mobile phone.
The report, conducted in May 2014 for BofA by Braun Research, clearly illustrates that Americans are really glued to their mobile phones as an important part of their daily life. Most people (47%) would not be able to live a day without their technology device.
In terms of use, a significant number of respondents (35%) said they check their phone constantly while about one-quarter check it several times a day. Ironically, BofA’s research clearly found that smartphones are used to complete banking transactions with 82% accessing their bank accounts at least once a week with 31% at least once a day. It seems like the latter group really needs constant updates on their accounts.
Age Group Differences on Mobile Phone Use
Interesting, but not shocking, millennials (18-24) consider their smartphones more important than many other “popular” lifestyle items such as social networking websites, car or television. The study also reported that smartphones are more important to millennials than toothpaste and deodorant. Not sure how to interpret this … but does this mean that we can really determine who a millennial is?
About one-quarter (28%) said that they could do without their phone for about a week. These individuals are probably feeling a bit “controlled” by their phones and could use the break from the technology. The “week” timeframe in the study may point to being able to have a ‘vacation’ from the phones.
Not Winter Season, A Political Season
A recent Wall Street Journal article (Polarized Over Polls: Internet vs. Phone, 1/30/16) discussed how political candidates conduct polls. Landline ownership in households has declined from 95% to 70% between 1991 and 2011. During the same time period, computer ownership in households has increased from 20% to almost 80%.
And cell phones? Well, the percentage of households that own a cell phone is approximately 90%, from just shy of 40% in 1998.
Pew Research Center has studied the response rate of its polls. In 2011, with the household ownership changes described above, their response rates have declined steadily. Combine effect of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act prohibiting automatic dialers calling cell phones. Thereby, the labor and time cost increases. As the landline usage declines … which will also include the number of successful interviews from the sample households … the risk of statistical errors of surveys can be in jeopardy.
No matter how you slice it, sounds like chocolate is no longer as addictive as smartphones. Maybe a chocolate smartphone? Now if you order chocolate with a smartphone, that will confuse the survey results of political surveys (oh heaven forbid!).
Instead of sending a dollar bill to complete a survey, send a bar of chocolate!