The use of mobile data applications has grown dramatically over
the last year, even as overall cell phone ownership has remained
steady Eight in ten American adults (82%) currently own a cell
phone of some kind, a figure that has remained fairly stable
over the past year. Since a similar point in 2006, the
proportion of Americans with a mobile phone has risen by nine
percentage points. While overall mobile phone ownership has not
grown over the last year, cell owners now take advantage of a
much wider range of their phones’ capabilities. Compared to when
we asked these questions in April 2009, mobile phone owners are
significantly more likely to use their phones to take pictures
(76% now do this, up from 66% in April 2009); send or receive
text messages (72% vs. 65%); play games (34% vs. 27%); send or
receive email (34% vs. 25%); access the internet (38% vs. 25%);
play music (33% vs. 21%); send or receive instant messages (30%
vs. 20%); and record a video (34% vs. 19%). Along with these
eight activities, we a