Survey says: most teens don't have a data plan, almost all send texts
By Nilay Patel 
posted May 5th 2010 1:43PM
posted May 5th 2010 1:43PM
We also thought voice calling on the Kin seemed like an afterthought to texting and social networking, but it turns out more and more older kids simply turn to the phone: 77 percent of 17 year olds text each other, but 60 percent of them call each other's cell phones -- and only 33 percent of them connect over social networking sites. Perhaps most damningly, Pew says nearly half -- 46% -- of teens play games on their phones, but Kin has no games at all. The report is actually full of other interesting tidbits like this and the infographic is quite nice, so hit the read links to check 'em out -- perhaps Microsoft and Verizon should do the same.
Pew Pew Internet research survey?
@zeroinfinity2 I didn't know 12 year old were teens?
And what happened to eighTEEN and nineTEEN!?
@zeroinfinity2
Can we take a look at the numbers prior to the iPhone being released. I'm guessing that about 1% of teens had a phone with a data plan. Point is, certain devices are trying to carve out a market where none previously existed.
It doesn't surprise me at all that teens may not be doing Facebook on their phones today. Up until really recently there just wasn't a good platform for completing those types of tasks.
The Kin is either going to be wildly successful or a complete failure. MS has either tapped into a market that is under represented or they just made a huge mistake offering a gimped product to a customer base that doesn't care.
@ssgadget
60% of the time, it works every time.
@bjsguess I made a similar point around the same time as you, however, I do think they missed the ball with their pricing and wont be as good as Apple at tapping into the youth. Without being able to beat Apple in price and marketing, the main draw would be Verizon and a few of the features/integration, but it also has its cons. Totally agree that it's not important what teens are doing with their phones but what they will be doing with their next phone and how much their monthly plan will cost (based on how much their parents currently pay, if they've agreed to any higher rates and/or if the teen can sacrifice some or all of a $30+ difference to get the more expensive plan).
@bjsguess
I would agree that what Microsoft is trying to do with the Kin is establish a new category of phone (like social networking phone). While most teens spend a lot of time texting, I'm sure they would love to Facebook as well. Unfortunately, the Data Plan price is going to make mass acceptance of this new category impossible. Verizon should have made either a $10 month data plan for this device, or a $20 - $25 dollar a month family data plan. $30 per device is absurd.
@juanvaldez Apple doesn't seem that good at tapping into the youth. Check this: http://metrics.admob.com/2010/02/january-2010-mobile-metrics-report/
(page 5 in the PDF)
What do you think?
@InKahootz 18 and 19 are considered adults since a long time ago. The english language can't save them from getting a job.
Too bad for Microsoft, they will have rely in 20 to 30 year old hipsters.
@InKahootz it must be some sort of a running joke -- you know, sort of like how everyone playing FPS's on xbox live are over 18 because the rules say so.
@ssgadget I know this is a dumb question. But is that true?
@Muu Im 17 and I've been playing halo for 3 years and I don't have a text or data plan
@zeroinfinity2 : They forgot 55% are Sexting.
@zeroinfinity2
And 84.2% of statistics are made up on the spot...
i understand this survey is for middle and high school kids but my question. Do most of these kids deserve data plans? Exactly the answer i thought.
is anyone else bothered that this pie chart adds up to 270%
@randomblame
I hope you're joking. At least, I upranked you for joking.
@Atkins 1 thing on the graph specifically. You notice that the 18-24 isn't really that much lower than the 25+, if the 25-34 year olds have 10 ages if instead within the age group they also had 7 years of data they'd have less than 15% of the iPhone marketplace compared to a competitive 12% of the current demographic of 18-24 and these actually have teens within the demographic. (this might be slightly evened out if there are more 18-24 year olds than there would be 25-31 year olds, but still a somewhat valid point to make.)
I only have time for page 5, I remember seeing this before and not completely agreeing with that conclusion. Here's the reason, this only gauges relative popularity and, to some extent, affordability. So, the two graphs, side by side, more show that the iTouch is relatively unpopular to the iPhone for older people, and that makes sense. My guess is that adults who bought an iTouch were either under contract, but liked the ecosystem and/or didn't want a data plan and were content with a feature phone. However, if cost/contract isn't the worry then my guess, but an adult wanted an iPhone but settle for an iTouch it might be due to AT&T. Again, this shows the popularity of the iPhone. For the iTouch, yes, it shows that it's most popular group is definitely the youth, and definitely the most probable cause is affordability relative to the iPhone. However, at the same time, this gets to my main point, it doesn't mean that the iPhone is unpopular and it doesn't mean it's unaffordable, it just means that it won't be mainstream and will be targeting a higher level of affluence than the iTouch. Seeing as how MS wants to compete there, they are doing some of the right things but also they will have to rely heavily on being and maximizing attention on what they do better. I personally think it wont sell half of what the iPhone does within the teen demographics.
Again, as one of my previous two comments here says, I don't think 30 data plan is straight out of the gate too expensive, though it will require an extra sacrfice from either the parents or the children, but I think this is fairly common across industries from this market segment. When I was a kid, Nintendos were popular, but they aren't nearly as widespread as this current generation of consoles, part of that is the American families can afford more and, IMHO, part of that is also the fact that it's just more assumed that a parent is to buy a system to entertain their kids with (especially if the parent happened to grow up with something similar) if they don't have some sort of moral or scholastic aversion. Many parents are also slow to adopt new technologies until their neighbor, friends, family and/or colleagues have, one conclusion I can easily draw without having to put much weight to is that the iPhone might just start to hit the critical mass (much like game consoles or the CPU - strictly for entertainment purposes to have a good analogy - before they got into such a high percentage of households) before we can see the 24 and younger demographics take off.
@juanvaldez Thanks, man. Great post :)
@Atkins No problem, I tend to think the graphs as saying they are popular seeing as how the age groups don't have the net income levels or more middle aged people but still buy in similar numbers.
I do however have no problem with the contention that perhaps they are so popular that they are also unpopular - a going against the grain mentality of the youth, once too many people have something it's less fashionable to follow, though still quite common. This is impossible to tell without a time/trend analysis, though I do presume most of the growth in the US from the past 6 months has been with older people that weren't as aware that the device could be useful to them for the first 2 years it was out, but that's just conjecture. Either way, it's one of those problems that are good to have from a business standpoint.
I'm in that group. What would I want to dish out 20-40 extra just to check my Facebook or...pay bills? So true.
@bryan c
Or:
- Use the phone GPS (the maps are not pre-loaded but streamed)
- Ditto Google Maps
- Check up on eBay auctions on the go.
- Check email on the go.
- Listen to net radio on the go
- READ ENGADGET on the go :D
So many more uses than facebooking.
@bryan c
The reason for this is, that 65% of all the kids have an ipod touch, and everyone knows the school wifi password... why would they want to pay 30 $ a month?
@bryan c I agree. I'm in the teen group. About 5 out of like 100 kids in the upper grades of my school have data plans. My family can't afford it so I have an iPod touch for mainly home use. If MS and Verizon want this to be successful they're going to have to lower those data plans or else fail.
Data plans are for people who know what to do with that data.
@Jeremiah i.e. 20 somethings and some 30 yr olds.
@Jeremiah Most importantly people with financial control over their own stuff, i.e. 20 somethings and 30 yr olds.
@Jeremiah The fact that people thought the Kin and Kin 2 were going after the dumb and unconnected part of the market segment was always a bit laughable. Also, the fact that the research is looking at what kids are doing, rather than what they want to do (if they got a new phone tomorrow) is a problem. Part of these stats don't show the causation, if you can't get online with your phone how would you bother to do any of the required online functioning with your cell phone. I think an important thing about the data plan is, if its about saving 30 bucks not getting a data plan, it makes sense for a kid who can't afford 70 bucks a month, but if parents are paying 40 and saying 70 is too much there are plenty of kids who can sacrifice $7.50 every week to get online...but they are going to do it on the iPhone and Android phones.
@Jeremiah
I don't really see the need for a data plan, i mean, unless you job depends on sending out powerpoints and spreadsheets every waking minute of the day.
Most people who do have data plans, just use it for crap (subjective i know) like twitter and facebook updates.
sorry, but i just don't see the value in spending all that money to tell someone you are at the shop, or at your cousins sisters ballerina.
it has it uses, but there are definitely more people with data plans that don't need them, than there are people with data plans that actually need them.
me, ill just stick with my 20 dollars a month for my thousand minutes, unlimited text and free calling after 6, than with 60 dollars to have facebook on the go.
@BrianH
You don't have to be an uber-geek to make use of a data plan. While a lot of people use said data for Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube videos, it is the application market (AppStore, Android Market, etc) that is really driving these data plans.
Also keep in mind as phones become more feature packed, this will increase the need for data. I use the Incredible for navigation tasks, that require the data package. The same can be said for e-mail, instant messenger, and the occasional document editing.
@Jeremiah
I am not saying that a 12-year-old needs/ is going to use a data plan, though I think by the time you turn about 16-17 and you start driving there is a lot more use for a data plan with the advent of Google Maps. Of course I had, albeit small, data plan when I was only in high school. It was useful to check baseball scores and other small similar searches.
@Adambadam I'm 16, I drive, and I prefer not to use a GPS, I will if I'm going outside the state(South Carolina). I would only use a data plan in the following conditions:
1. If I have access to no computer. Even then, I could probably pull the info via text or picture message(which requires no data plan).
2. If I had a smartphone
3. If I held a job which required it.
@BrianH I disagree.
I'm 14, I use my (unlimited) data plan to:
Check my email.
Read Engadget.
Read Gizmodo (yeah, yeah, boooo)
Tether (Shhhhhh :P)
Type this comment.
Go on alldroid.
Visit droidforums.
Download the latest hacks and roms for my Motorola Droid.
Get updates for my Droid.
Send email.
MyspaceIM.
I hate Facebook. :p
I DESPISE Twitter.
Go on the Market for apps.
Go on the XDA Developers website.
So, tell me again, basically, what you're saying is data plans are only for those who are boring businessmen.
It is also for those too cheap to pay $500+ for a phone. (on the spot) Yet pay $1200 a year.
@TylerCameron42 Why would you be on XDA? You have a MOTO device, not a HTC device!
Not too suprising, my girlfriends brother and all his friends have either feature phone or dumb phones without data plans b/c of just that. Parents don't want to buy a data package.
72% are text messages?!
@suprizechainsaw
44% of the kids send more than 100 texts a day?????? WTF?!?!
My hands would fall off.
@suprizechainsaw 72% are text messageRs.
1 letter can make allot more sense ;)
@SeeKo I'm sure the majority of those texts consist of "k", "lol", "jk", "cool", and "ya"(or "yeah"). The only thing that's going to be falling is intelligence.
@hunterholder
lol... TRUE.
first: pew pew pew
second: I know lots of teens with data plans. Myself included.
that screaming you hear is Balmer yelling why no one showed him this sooner...
@From My Cube
And Microsoft couldn't find out these statistics before coming out with the phone? It's hard to see a company miss-step like this. The kin audience is dumb, rich, socializing 17 and 18 year olds that have never heard of an iPhone or Android.
I find it very hard to believe that 25% of teens don't have a cell phone.
@HJTravels Still a lot of people that live out in the sticks, and they only have crappy/expensive cell coverage. Others have parents that can't afford a cell plan.
Well, I have unlimited internet on my phone, but text more than anything else. Always have done.
I am not on facebook though, so I guess I use data a lot less.
@dan828 What about prepaid?
@HJTravels
This is called lying with statistics. Did this survey count teens living in the Appalachians or did it just look to the center of LA? Surveys love to say things like "of all teens" without qualifying "where". Luckily they aren't trying to sell you anything (at least I dont think) or the numbers would be much worse. Take for example "75% of all teens have cell phones". Then they state 72% of all teens text. Okay, so do the math and that comes out to 96% of teens WITH phones text. On their site however they state 88%, not 96... who knows where the hell they came up with their numbers. My guess? I think you already know.
@HJTravels
Maybe 25% of teens have dropped them into toilet/lost them?
@Eli Haj
Well in LA I would guess 24.9 %
:)
.
The Kins might suck, but all this shows is that Microsoft was right about what market to go after. Why would you want to build a cell phone only for demographics/uses that are already popular? Most teens text message...ok, hence the Kins...
The biggest competition is still the iPhone. I've seen a gazillion Pre-pubescent kids on iPhones that also have a $30/mo data rate but only cost 99...and do a heck of a lot more...on a better UI...
.