Moms Love Smartphones

March 30, 2011

babycenter-smartphone-use-among-mothers-mar11.gifAmerican moms are more likely than overall women own a smartphone, according to new data from BabyCenter. The “21st Century Mobile Mom Report” indicates 53% of moms say they purchased a smartphone as a direct result of becoming a mom.

Smartphones Can Be Addictive for Moms

This makes moms 18% more likely than overall women to have a smartphone, and smartphone adoption by moms has grown 64% in the last two years. In addition, 51% of smartphone-owning moms say they are “addicted” to their smartphone, and 46% have taken action as a result of a smartphone ad. Coupons, nearby local deals, and barcode scanning rounding out the top three most appealing features of mobile ads for moms.

Cameras Most Important Mobile Features for Moms

During the transition to motherhood, the most important features of a mom’s phone change from her address book and text messaging to her camera, up 78% to #1, and video camera, which increased by 167% to #2. Apps, which aren’t even on the top 10 list of important mobile features of overall women, increased 67% to #3 on the list. More than half (52%) of the moms surveyed have 10 or more apps downloaded, with nearly 25% of the apps being for their kids.

Moms Shop ‘Smart’

The report found that 68% of moms use their smartphone while shopping, meaning a mom is 15% more likely to do so than average. In fact, nearly half (46%) claim the most convenient time to receive information about a product is when they are in the store. Also, 62% of moms use shopping apps to research or compare prices.

Smartphones Dominate Moms’ Media Time

On average, moms spends 37% of their daily media time with their smartphones, which is double that spent on TV and more time than with other media, including radio, magazines, and newspapers. In addition, 78% of moms say they use e-mail on their smartphones to filter incoming communications on a daily basis. Moms are also 284% more likely than the average adult to text their friends rather than call them.

Moms are Mobile Power Users

The majority of smartphone-owning moms (68%) know how to use most of the features of their smartphones, and 75% troubleshoot their own phones. Furthermore, one-third (33%) of moms have used their smartphones for health and wellness in the past month, making a mom 50% more likely to do so than average.

Their health and wellness smartphone activities include tracking their family’s health (60%) as well as researching health conditions (90%). Moms are also 40% more likely than average to use their smartphone for social networking. Their top three social activities include reading social newsfeeds (56%), updating her status (54%), and reading answers to posted questions (48%).

Millennial Media: Smartphones Have Biggest Edge in Mobile Ad Awareness

Direct comparisons of the overall mobile audience made by Millennial Media in its February 2011 SMART Report show that smartphones are an especially superior vehicle for advertising compared to feature phones in the area of mobile ad awareness, or capturing customer attention. Smartphone campaigns have 39% effectiveness in this area, about 39% more than the 28% effectiveness of feature phones.

In addition, smartphones are 30% more effective than feature phones in the area of unaided awareness (17% compared to 13%), and 25% more effective in purchase intent (15% compared to 12%).

About the Data: The study captured the opinions and behaviors of more than 5,000 moms and members of the general population as well as an ethnography study of 23 moms that included more than 1,000 text logs, 200 video entries, and 32 hours of in-home interviews.

Chart-Library-Ad-1

Explore More Articles.

Which Skills Are Important in RevOps?

Which Skills Are Important in RevOps?

9 in 10 RevOps professionals view data analysis skills as being important, a high percentage also don’t believe they need this skill for their job.

Marketing Charts Logo

Stay on the cutting edge of marketing.

Sign up for our free newsletter.

You have Successfully Subscribed!

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This