RSSAnalysts: Internet connections, cell phones are failing consumers
By Jacqueline Emigh | Published November 17, 2008, 12:40 PM
Internet connections lead the pack at 44 percent among technologies that are not working for home users, says a study released today. In one intriguing result, cell phones pose more problems for 18-to-29-year-olds than for senior citizens.
Some 44 percent of adult Americans with home Internet access claim that their connections failed at some point over the past 12 months, says a new survey by Pew Research, which also points to significant problems with the operation of PCs, cell phones, and PDAs.
The results weren't all that different across the four age groups studied -- which ranged from 18-to-29-year-olds, sometimes referred to as "Millenials," to senior citizens in the 65-plus bracket -- except that, surprisingly, people under age 39 are a lot more likely to experience cell phone failure than the two oldest groups examined.
In terms of the devices studied, iPod and MP3 players were the least likely to fail, with only 15% of respondents using these products reporting problems with them over the past year.
On the other hand, 26% of those with "BlackBerrys, Palm Pilots, or other personal digital assistants" pointed to difficulties with their devices. The same held true for 39% of desktop and laptop computer users asked about those machines.
Among all cell phone owners studied, 29% said their devices have failed to work properly over the previous 12 months.
But only 18% of the 65-plus group had trouble with their cell phones, and 26% of those between 50 and 64 years old. In comparison, 30% of respondents between 18 and 29 years of age experienced cell phone problems, along with 33% of those 30 to 49.
While citing no definite reasons behind the differences in cell phone experiences, Pew's John B. Horrigan and Sydney Jones, the two authors of the report, suggested that older users "may have less wear and tear on their phones than do younger users."
Senior citizens "are not as exclusively reliant on their cell phones as younger owners," and are significantly more likely to have landline phones at home, according to the analysts.
It would stand to reason, however, that results might also be impacted by other factors. Are younger users less tolerant of cell phone glitches, maybe? Are 18-to-29-year-olds more prone to cell phone failure because they're more likely to adopt newer and more complex devices, such as iPhones and Android phones, for instance? Alternatively, are iPhones and Android phones considered by Pew to be PDAs, rather than cell phones? The report really doesn't say.
But the survey does answer the question of how the consumers in the study handled device failure. About 38% contacted user support for help. Another 28% fixed the problem themselves, and 15% did so with assistance from family or friends.
Only two percent looked for and found the solution to the problem online. A total of 15% "were NOT able to fix the problem," the researchers acknowledged.
Yawn...
"Some 44 percent of adult Americans with home Internet access claim that their connections failed at some point over the past 12 months"...
Gee, you mean for a myriad reasons including storm damage of plant, electrical power outages, or a myriad other potential issues including those outside the control of the service provider (eg POWER OUTAGES), the system went down?
Oh my!
Crisis! How will we survive! And I couldn't surf the web for the best price for a Barney doll on EBay for an entire hour!
We need a survey for this?
So the survey simply tells us that the systems do not necessarily experience 100% uptime...
But yet 56% tell us they did experience 100% uptime!!!
Yup, music should be free, and infrastructure should function flawlessly and there should be no user error (which the survey conveniently fails to distinguish from infrastructure problems!)
Yup, this is news. The real news is that in a country as LARGE as the US, with the severe weather experienced, and with the complexity of utility services and the large number of environmental variables to which they are subject, that 56% of adults experienced NO failure of the Internet in a years time!
Watch out TMZ, theys a comin for ya.
Yup, the Internet providers have "failed us". I would suggest that such lousy amorphous surveys and slanted 'let's make the news' reporting has failed in a far greater and much more fundamental sense. Yup folks, everything is a crisis! How DO you survive the day? LOL!
And for those who will disagree, how about using the same standards of this article to evaluate Windows (or ANY OS for that matter)!
How many have experienced a freeze, or panic, or malware, or whatever was the cause of a glitch in Windows - INCLUDING power outages - after all, that's the fault of Windows too, right? ...Just like it is for Internet downtime!
So BN, how about using the same standards(sic) and reporting on the DIRE STRAITS the IT industry (or for that matter, society!) is in! LOL!
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Steady now, little girl :)
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Sorry - I will try to keep it in terms you erudite Chicken Little's can understand:
The sky is falling! The sky is falling!
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"In one intriguing result, cell phones pose more problems for 18-to-29-year-olds than for senior citizens."
Two reasons:
1. Younger people are more likely to buy more complex phones.
2. Younger people don't RTFM
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They left out another possible reason:
After two years, I decided to replace my cell phone with a new one, giving my old cell to my 26 year old son.
Within 30 days that two year old cell phone, which had still been in virtually new condition when passed along to my son, was missing a button from top and the earpiece had been punctured... rendering it inoperable.
My son was simply far more physically abusive to the phone than his father was. Constantly dropping, throwing, and leaving it lying about where his 2 year old daughter could get at it.
It was scratched, scuffed, and generally treated like a hockey puck.
Thinking it over, I quickly realized that the middle-aged and older members among my family all seem to have much longer usage from their cell phones, even though many of them are contractors and other professions that typically expose their equipment to rough and tumble environments.
Could it be that younger users are simply physically harder on the hardware?
When I spend $300 on a piece of hardware, I tend to respect it and treat it well. But then, I have spent most of my life as a toolmaker, I always felt that I was only as good as the condition of my tools.
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This article tells us nothing. Clearly older people have far less complex phones and therefore are less likely to experience problems. My 92 year old grandfather has a basic cell phone with a pay-as-you-go plan, used only in emergencies. On the other hand, I have a touch-screen phone with Internet access, text messaging, camera, etc., that I use on a daily basis. It is not "intriguing" in the slightest that I would experience more problems.
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It is somewhat interesting that quality of service is still a backseat to adding features. If a vendor could produce a phone that has features but doesn't have as many issues it might be lucrative.
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Touch phones and what not are still in its infancy. Sure Palm has been doing it for years but you mainly used a stylis and not your finger to touch the screen.
I have an Instinct and it works great (granted I only had it 4 months). Younger people do tend to be harder on their phones and older people do tend to get more simplistic phones.
I have a friend whos 16 year old son breaks his phone almost once a year but my father looses his phone about once every year or 2. My phones usually last as long as I keep them.
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My Samsung i760/WM/Verizon must either have its wireless (3G) reset daily or the whole phone reset(easier to do.)
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ditto. I have the same phone. I hate it.
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