Brits more hooked on mobile tech than Yanks are

Britons are more mobile-obsessed than their US counterparts, a new survey has revealed.

According to the latest edition of Carphone Warehouse’s Mobile Life Report, 94 per cent of British youngsters own mobile phones, compared to just 80 per cent of those in the US.

CW’s report sought to analyse the relationship that 6000 adults and kids in the US and UK have with mobile phone and internet technology. The retailer also hoped to answer such modern conundrums as: are we loosing the ability to form ‘real life’ relationships? And do people communicate nowadays more or less

Only four per cent of UK adults questioned have still managed to resist the urge to acquire a mobile phone - in the US, the figure is ten per cent. By contrast, 17 per cent of UK adults said they owned two or more handsets, whereas just 11 per cent of US adults said the same.

Unsurprisingly, texting is the preferred communication format for adults and kids in both countries. Over half of the UK children questioned rated it as their most important form of communication, compared to 32 per cent of US kids.

Likewise, 46 per cent of UK adults favour texting over, say, calling or emailing – and 28 per cent of US adults said the same.

However, such prolific use of mobiles doesn’t mean that everyone’s up to speed with mobile internet. The survey found that, among adults, emailing is the only common online activity performed using a mobile phone, with 24 per cent of US and 17 per cent of UK adults having done it at some point in their lives.

Only one in ten US teens admitted that they’d ever downloaded music or photos to a mobile phone, whereas in the UK one in four children have done so.

CW concluded that overall online activity from mobile phones remains limited, but stressed that there are signs of its increasing popularity on both sides of the Atlantic, particularly among the young.

Over a third of the children in both countries nominated the mobile phone as their most important possession, while adults were most likely to nominate the TV.