{"id":94577,"date":"2013-06-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-06-05T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2013\/06\/05\/smartphone-ownership-2013\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T04:18:35","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T09:18:35","slug":"smartphone-ownership-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/internet\/2013\/06\/05\/smartphone-ownership-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"Smartphone Ownership 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4 id=\"56-of-american-adults-are-now-smartphone-owners\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">56% of American adults are now smartphone owners<\/h4>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For the first time since the Pew Research Center\u2019s Internet &amp; American Life Project began systematically tracking smartphone adoption, a majority of Americans now own a smartphone of some kind. Our definition of a smartphone owner includes anyone who says \u201cyes\u201d to one\u2014or both\u2014of the following questions:<\/p>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>55% of cell phone owners say that <i>their phone is a smartphone.<\/i><\/li>\n<li>58% of cell phone owners say that their phone <i>operates on a smartphone platform<\/i> common to the U.S. market.[1. This includes anyone who identified their phone as an iPhone, Android phone, Blackberry, or Windows phone]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Taken together, 61% of cell owners said yes to at least one of these questions and are classified as smartphone owners. Because 91% of the adult population now owns some kind of cell phone, that means that 56% of <i>all<\/i> American adults are now smartphone adopters. \u00a0One third (35%) have some other kind of cell phone that is not a smartphone, and the remaining 9% of Americans do not own a cell phone at all.<\/p>\n\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" alt=\"Figure 1\" src=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/internet\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/media\/6DE83111C21C45949BCF98098EFA409A.jpg\" width=\"510\" height=\"442\"><\/figure>\n\n<h4 id=\"demographic-trends-in-smartphone-ownership\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Demographic trends in smartphone ownership<\/h4>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As has consistently been the case since we began measuring smartphone adoption two years ago, ownership is particularly high among younger adults, especially those in their twenties and thirties (although a majority of Americans in their mid-forties through mid-fifties are now smartphone adopters) and those with relatively high levels of household income and educational attainment.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Every major demographic group experienced significant year-to-year growth in smartphone ownership between 2012 and 2013, although seniors\u2014defined as those 65 and older\u2014continue to exhibit relatively low adoption levels compared with other demographic groups. Some 18% of Americans age 65 and older now own a smartphone, compared with 13% in February 2012.<\/p>\n\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" alt=\"Figure 2\" src=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/internet\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/media\/D5E14FB078A54D5ABC5D32ABB2BFA2C2.jpg\" width=\"430\" height=\"613\"><\/figure>\n\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" alt=\"Figure 3\" src=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/internet\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/media\/68F990874B4F4492A1188C51D8237F14.jpg\" width=\"433\" height=\"620\"><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Though growth in smartphone ownership has occurred up and down the economic spectrum, adoption still varies significantly by household income. However, that variation is unevenly distributed across different age groups. Younger adults\u2014regardless of income level\u2014are very likely to be smartphone owners. Conversely, for older adults smartphone ownership is more of an \u201celite\u201d phenomenon: smartphones tend to be quite prevalent at the upper end of the income distribution but much less common among those with lower income levels.<\/p>\n\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" alt=\"Smartphone ownership by income and age group\" src=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/internet\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/media\/305DE21B82B244F59F4D5C01432B2B4C.jpg\" width=\"503\" height=\"508\"><\/figure>\n\n<h4 id=\"trends-in-platform-adoption\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Trends in platform adoption<\/h4>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since 2011, the proportion of cell owners who say they own either an iPhone or an Android device have each grown dramatically. Android owners now represent 28% of all cell owners (up from 15% in May 2011), while iPhone owners now represent 25% of the cell owner population (up from 10% in May 2011). Meanwhile, the proportion of cell owners who say they own a Blackberry device has fallen from 10% in May 2011 to just 4% in our most recent survey.<\/p>\n\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" alt=\"Figure 5\" src=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/internet\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/media\/CCA7D0A02BD44E988B4EB910C009BF16.jpg\" width=\"521\" height=\"513\"><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Android and iPhone owners are equally common within the cell owner population as a whole, although this ratio differs across various demographic groups. Cell phone owners from a wide range of educational and household income groupings have similar levels of Android adoption, but those from the upper end of the income and education spectrum are much more likely than those with lower income and educational levels to say they own an iPhone. Indeed, fully half\u201449%\u2014of cell owners with a household income of $150,000 or more say their phone is an iPhone. And African-American cell owners are more likely than whites or Latinos to say that their phone is an Android device as opposed to an iPhone.<\/p>\n\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" alt=\"Figure 6\" src=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/internet\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/media\/7D0F36D85E384C379AFA58707C5B1592.jpg\" width=\"522\" height=\"819\"><\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>56% of American adults now own a smartphone of some kind; Android and iPhone owners account for half of the cell phone user population. Higher income adults and those under age 35 lead the way when it comes to smartphone ownership.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":151,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sub_headline":"","sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"relatedPosts":[],"reportMaterials":[],"multiSectionReport":[{"key":"_migrate_0","postId":94584}],"package_parts__enabled":false,"package_parts":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[308,313,271],"tags":[],"bylines":[973],"collection":[],"datasets":[1864],"level_of_effort":[],"primary_audience":[],"information_type":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[458],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[],"research-teams":[526],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-94577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mobile","category-smartphones","category-technology-adoption","bylines-aaron-smith","datasets-may-2013-online-dating","formats-report","research-teams-internet"],"label":false,"post_parent":0,"word_count":550,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/internet\/2013\/06\/05\/smartphone-ownership-2013\/","art_direction":false,"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[{"id":94577,"title":"Smartphone Ownership 2013","slug":"smartphone-ownership-2013","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/internet\/2013\/06\/05\/smartphone-ownership-2013\/","is_active":true},{"id":94584,"title":"Methods","slug":"methods-20","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/internet\/2013\/06\/05\/methods-20\/","is_active":false}],"report_materials":"","report_pagination":{"current_post":{"id":94577,"title":"Smartphone Ownership 2013","slug":"smartphone-ownership-2013","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/internet\/2013\/06\/05\/smartphone-ownership-2013\/","is_active":true,"page_num":1},"next_post":{"id":94584,"title":"Methods","slug":"methods-20","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/internet\/2013\/06\/05\/methods-20\/","is_active":false,"page_num":2},"previous_post":null,"pagination_items":[{"id":94577,"title":"Smartphone Ownership 2013","slug":"smartphone-ownership-2013","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/internet\/2013\/06\/05\/smartphone-ownership-2013\/","is_active":true,"page_num":1},{"id":94584,"title":"Methods","slug":"methods-20","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/internet\/2013\/06\/05\/methods-20\/","is_active":false,"page_num":2}]},"parent_info":{"parent_title":"Smartphone Ownership 2013","parent_id":94577},"materialsOrdered":[],"chaptersOrdered":[{"key":"_migrate_0","postId":94584}],"partsOrdered":[],"partsEnabled":false,"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"Smartphone Ownership 2013","description":"56% of American adults now own a smartphone of some kind; Android and iPhone owners account for half of the cell phone user population. 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