By Jeff Sherman OnMilwaukee.com Staff Writer Published Jul 01, 2009 at 5:15 PM

Best Buy Mobile commissioned a survey revealing that a large portion of adults in America plan to buy a smartphone in the next 12 months. That's no surprise.  

The poll of 1,000 Americans, half men and half women all over the age of 18, was conducted by telephone May 29-31 by GfK Roper, a division of GfK Custom Research North America, to obtain a snapshot of current habits, preferences and purchase intentions among today’s mobile phone users. 

Here's are some of the interesting, if not random, survey results.  

-Only one in five of adults surveyed already owns a smartphone, but a sizable segment of those in their 20’s and 30’s in particular consider it a purchase they plan to make in the year ahead. 

-One in four of American mobile phone users surveyed admitted they have spied and read someone else’s text messages without permission. This includes looking at the messages of spouses, partners, friends or even their own kids.

-Nearly 38% said they had sent a text message to the wrong person by mistake. Texting leaves a lot of room for interpretation by the recipient, and 37% say they've been misunderstood by a person receiving their text message.

-One-fourth of Americans (23%) admitted to "TWI," or texting while intoxicated, and 30% of men and 18% of women said they regretted something they had written in a text message.

- If caught in the rain with a choice of a mobile phone or an umbrella, nearly 37 percent of Americans would choose their mobile phone.

-One in three would give up television to keep their mobile phone.

-An odd, yet passionate minority of 15 percent of Americans said they would rather have their teeth drilled at the dentist’s office than give up their mobile phone for a week.

-Finally, as I teased, six in ten (60 percent) of those surveyed shared they would rather abstain from alcohol for a week than give up their mobile phone.

 I could do it, no problem.  A week without beer for my Blackberry.  Done deal.  More though, not so sure.  Thoughts?  Use the talk back feature to comment.  

 

 

Jeff Sherman OnMilwaukee.com Staff Writer

A life-long and passionate community leader and Milwaukeean, Jeff Sherman is a co-founder of OnMilwaukee.

He grew up in Wauwatosa and graduated from Marquette University, as a Warrior. He holds an MBA from Cardinal Stritch University, and is the founding president of Young Professionals of Milwaukee (YPM)/Fuel Milwaukee.

Early in his career, Sherman was one of youngest members of the Greater Milwaukee Committee, and currently is involved in numerous civic and community groups - including board positions at The Wisconsin Center District, Wisconsin Club and Marcus Center for the Performing Arts.  He's honored to have been named to The Business Journal's "30 under 30" and Milwaukee Magazine's "35 under 35" lists.  

He owns a condo in Downtown and lives in greater Milwaukee with his wife Stephanie, his son, Jake, and daughter Pierce. He's a political, music, sports and news junkie and thinks, for what it's worth, that all new movies should be released in theaters, on demand, online and on DVD simultaneously.

He also thinks you should read OnMilwaukee each and every day.