Fickle Americans forsaking TVs, landline telephones for mobile, high-speed internet

Pew Research Center statistics say that Americans are abandoning landline telephones and television, two previous must-haves. Just 42 percent of Americans say they consider a television set to be a necessity (compared with 52 percent last year). Meanwhile, and here's hope for cable operators still pushing into the digital phone business, 62 percent say a landline phone is one of life's necessities (down from 68 percent last year). Bad news for wireless-less cable: 47 percent think that a mobile phone is a necessity.

The research, detailed in Pew's Social and Demographic Trends project said that a car is still by far the biggest necessity (even though that figure is down 2 percent); high-speed Internet is up 3 percent as a necessity and a flat screen TV is up 2 percent.

Of course, tracking consumer wants and needs will keep any research company in business with results likely to befuddle and annoy any marketer. Other data suggests that older Internet users disproportionately dislike online Internet advertising. More than half of those over the age of 55 told U.K-based Connect Insight that they avoid sites with advertisements, "illustrating the need for advertisers to understand their target audiences, their online behavior, mindset and attitude to advertising." Really?

For more:
- see this news release
- and this story
- Orange County Register has this story
- WARC has this story
- see this story

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