I have a cell phone that I use strictly for its functional purpose - to make phone calls. I choose not to “personalize” my phone with ringtones, faceplates, photos, or smells. In wireless industry parlance, this makes me an “Adult Adopter”.

comScore Networks recently published a study that focused on trends in the wireless industry. The part of the study I was most interested in is the study of behavior and attitudes that wireless consumers have towards their mobile phones. The survey was conducted from October 25, 2006 to November 1, 2006 and consisted of 1,708 U.S. wireless phone consumers that were divided into three distinct groups according to age:

1. The Cellular Generation - Ages 18 to 24, these young adults grew up with cell phone awareness, experiencing cell phones as a part of their everyday lives.
2. Transitioners - Ages 25 to 34, these people fall in between two groups: those who grew up with cell phone knowledge and those who did not. Cell phones began to infiltrate everyday life during their teen years and early adulthood.
3. Adult Adopters - Age 35 or older, this group was not exposed to cell phones until adulthood. Adult Adopters tend to have the most functional view of cell phones, with many requiring just the basics and showing limited interest in emerging technologies.

Cell Phones as Accessories
Adult Adopters tend to have a more functional view of their phones while consumers in the Cellular Generation and Transitioners groups are likely to view their cell phones as multi-dimensional devices that help to express their individuality. One-quarter of both the Cellular Generation and Transitioners said that “trendiness” important when selecting a phone, compared to just 10 percent of Adult Adopters.

Cell Phone Features
Additional features are clearly most important to The Cellular Generation, with 57 percent ranking text messaging of “high importance”, much higher than their more senior counterparts.

Forty-two percent of the Cellular Generation said that a camera was of high importance when selecting a wireless phone and 20 percent said the same of an MP3 Player. In comparison, 30 percent of Adult adopters felt that having a camera was of high importance, and just 8 percent felt the same about an MP3 Player.

Accessing the Internet on their Cell Phones
Transitioners (29 percent) are more likely to subscribe to Internet services than the Cellular Generation (23 percent). Adult adopters have been the slowest to adopt this behavior, with just 13 percent currently subscribing to the Internet on their cell phones while 42 percent either lack, or are unaware of the option of doing so.

Nothing too shocking here; the tweens consider their phones to be a fashion accessory loaded with lots of features and connectivity options while the graybeards treat a cell phone like an appliance.

Having turned 35 this year, I find myself in the “Adult Adopter” segment. Apparently 35 is a significant age to marketing people as I seem to fall into many new demographic segments now. Hopefully the mobile device designers can come up with a simple phone for us Adult Adopters; lacking in both options and sophistication.