As a researcher who focuses on "emerging" consumer behaviors, I've been fascinated and stunned by how much Americans love their cellphones. A new level of TMI is being displayed as people yak yak yak to their friends, scream at their exes, check in with their moms and even goo-goo to their babies from all manner of public places. How many times have you seen the pilot nearly called on a plane to haul off an irate "just-one-more-minute-this-call-is-important" passenger? How many of you have wondered if the plane really would go down if you did make that call?
Insight Express' Digital Consumer Portrait is a quarterly report that has looked into places where people use their mobile phones where they perhaps shouldn't: on planes, in stores (though unthinkable a few years ago, it's an important comparison-shopping behavior and 87% of mobile phone owners report doing it) and even in church (where 9% of those who are bored with the sermon are doing so). No entertainment deserves our undivided attention with 38% of people using mobiles while at sporting events and 22% of people using them during a movie. So just imagine what they do in private.
I'm a fan of this piece of research and was thrilled when Insight Express senior director of research Joy Liuzzo asked my input about new questions for first-quarter 2011. Aside from my need for information on usage of mobile phones for couponing and early forms of mobile commerce (trend reports to come in Q2 and Q3), I wanted to see if people would admit to behavior I had been overhearing in stalls everywhere.
Yes, we went there: the toilet, because many of you are already there using your phones. Here are the less- than-hygienic details: 56% of mobile phone owners admit to using their phones "while using the bathroom." What are they doing? No. 1: talking to you (70%). No. 2: texting to you (62%). What else do they do? Twenty-seven percent are playing games, while 20% use music to soothe the process. Nineteen percent are social networking (hey, I'm …) and 13% of those who are on smartphones are using location-based services such as Foursquare.(Not really sure what kind of retail impact checking in to a toilet might hold. Are they the mayors of their stalls?) In fact, people are as likely to be updating their status or checking in than they are to be e-reading -- another instance where behaviors of the past are being matched by technology and the new.
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