What Else Can It Do Besides Make Phone Calls?

Shopping for a cell phone recently, I found myself asking the sales guy a very important question, "What else can it do besides make phone calls?" He answered with a little smirk and proceeded to tell me about the other million and one uses the phone I was interested had. It has a QWERTY keyboard, camera, can connect to the internet, can take video and play music. Now only if it could clean my dishes and put away my laundry, I'd be all set.

Well, according to a recent survey done by Pew Internet, AP, and AOL, I'm not alone. The younger cell phone users (those aged 18-29) are, "The most likely to use extra cell phone features, or … they want to acquire whatever interactive media and communications capabilities are available to them."

More from the report:

"For instance, 36% of younger cell users say they would like the option of having instant messages sent to their cells, compared with 19% of cell owners ages 30 and older who say they want this feature. If they could limit the IM forwards just to select members of their buddy lists, young cell owners would even more avidly embrace the feature: 50% say they would like that, compared with 34% of those 30 and older. "

And some more interesting stats from the report (the percentage below applies to users aged 18-29):

- 85% personalized their cells by changing wallpaper or adding ringtones
- 55% use cells to take pictures
- 47% use cells to play games
- (and one that I thought was particularly interesting) 9% use their cell to access maps and driving directions while 56% of these users would like to have this feature.

Hear that cell phone companies? We're all getting lost and we need our cell phone to tell us where to go. 

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