The Meh! Too of Mobile......

We hear a lot about the rise of the "always on, fully mobile, digital road warriors" - and a new piece of research by the Pew Internet Foundation exclaims that:

Cast a glance at any coffee shop, train station or airport boarding gate, and it is easy to see that mobile access to the internet is taking root in our society. Open laptops or furrowed brows staring at palm-sized screens are evidence of how routinely information is exchanged on wireless networks.

Except that their own data shows that only about 40% of the US population is mobile mad, but 60% are mobile Meh!

Five groups make up the 39% of American adults who make up the basket of groups they called "Motivated by Mobility."

Digital Collaborators: 8% of adults use information gadgets to collaborate with others and share their creativity with the world.

Ambivalent Networkers: 7% of adults heavily use mobile devices to connect with others and entertain themselves, but they don't always like it when the cell phone rings.

Media Movers: 7% of adults use online access to seek out information nuggets, and these nuggets make their way through these users' social networks via desktop and mobile access.

Roving Nodes: 9% of adults use their mobile devices to connect with others and share information with them.

Mobile Newbies: 8% of adults lack robust access to the internet, but they like their cell phones.

The profiles of the other 61%, the "Stationary Media Majority," are:

Desktop Veterans: 13% of adults are dedicated to wireline access to digital information, and like how it opens up the pipeline to information for them.

Drifting Surfers: 14% of adults are light users -- despite having a lot of ICTs -- and say they could do without modern gadgets and services.

Information Encumbered: 10% of adults feel overwhelmed by information and inadequate to troubleshoot modern ICTs.

The Tech Indifferent: 10% of adults are unenthusiastic about the internet and cell phone.

Off the Network: 14% of adults are neither cell phone users nor internet users.

But the trending is also interesting:

- 66% of those in the "motivated by mobility" groups report that it would be very hard to do without their cell phones.
- This contrasts sharply with the 21% figure for the "stationary media majority" groups.
- "Motivated by mobility" groups collectively showed an improvement in cell phone attitudes by 20% from 2006 to 2007.
- Again, in stark contrast, the "stationary media majority" groups collectively saw a 64% decrease in attitudes about cell phones from 2006 to 2007. (my italics)

Allow me to cross multiply these data across the whole population:

- 66% of 31% motivateds - ie 20% - cannot live without their mobile phones
- 21% of 61% unmotivateds - ie 13% - cannot live without theirs (but are no doubt happy to leave them)
- 64% of 61% - ie 39% - have worsened their attitudes towards mobiles

Seems like its becoming Mobile Meh!dia to me. I suspect its those pesky laptop and netbook thingies. Pew puts a brave face on the mobile Meh!, saying that the occasional use of mobile applications and decidedly lukewarm attitudes of the previously "on the button" Desktop Veterans and the Drifting Surfers, who make up 26% of the adult population (and have broadband adoption rates of about 80%) leave them off the cutting edge. But if the cutting edge is blunting...?

Methinks though, the action is really in that Broadband Adoption thingy............