A new study, "How People Use(R) Cell Phones," from Knowledge Networks reports that three in five (60 percent) mobile phone owners say they carry their phones at all times, even inside the home. That's up 50 percent since a 2002 Knowledge Networks analysis. Thirty-two percent say they call friends or family "all the time" or "often" when making shopping decisions, a figure that jumps to 45 percent among those ages 18 to 34. When asked an open-ended question about what they dislike about their cell phones, respondents most often (15 percent) said, "Nothing."

The folks at KN say that enthusiasm for a variety of mobile phone applications, such as watching video or using GPS-type functions, is noticeably higher among younger generations (which, of course, isn't exactly surprising). KN found that 61 percent of "Gen Y" consumers, or "Millennials," say "the more features the better" on a cell phone, compared with 27 percent of Boomers. The study also shows that, among mobile phone owners:

° Members of Generation Y (ages 13 to 29) send an average of 20 text messages daily, compared to just 2 for Generation X (30-43) and less than one for Baby Boomers (44 to 64).

° Teens are four times as likely to report having watched TV or video on their phones as adults ( eight percent vs. two percent).

Other data from Knowledge Networks -- its MultiMedia Mentor media planning resource, which includes single-source data on consumers' media use -- affirms a connection between use of some advanced mobile phone features and heavy use of other media. For example, consumers (ages 18 to 64) who use cell phone video spend 27 percent more time per week with media (over two hours more per day) compared to all mobile phone owners; this includes 60 percent more time on the Internet, and almost triple the amount of time with videogames.

Monthly use of the Internet via mobile phones is limited to 13 percent of all cell phone owners -- a small but growing group that may be pointing the way toward the future. With all this in mind, 40 million in iPhone sales over the next year doesn't sound impossible at all.

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