It's the holidays, how do you use your phone to shop?

I ask because of a surprising mobile shopping report made available today. What caught my interest was methodology -- survey by mobile phones -- and sample size of 12,533. Briabe Media put together the survey, conducted on MocoSpace's mobile network of 14 million registered users. Among the 31-page PowerPoint report's findings: 62 percent of respondents used their phones to research products or pricing before going shopping. Forty-six percent used their phones to comparison shop once in the stores.

Can you say personal shopping assistant? What the report doesn't reveal is where mobile users do their comparison shopping. Is it using the Amazon app or perhaps Google Googles? Something else? I rarely buy anything selling for more than $20 without comparison shopping in the store. What about you?

I generally look lightly on reports like this one -- built-in conflict-of-interest. Both parties directly benefit from promoting the data, meaning it's not conducted by a neutral third party. But the methodology is interesting enough and information provided in the report detailed enough for me to reasonably trust the findings. Additionally, there is excellent attention given to demographics, such as race and age. That said, the data is somewhat skewed by the disparate gender representation -- 71 percent female and 29 percent male. By age: 14-19, 22 percent; 20-29, 35 percent; 30-plus, 43 percent.

Some quick findings:

• 32 percent of respondents consider their mobile phone as "very important" during this holiday shopping season
• 76 percent give some level of importance to their mobile phones for holiday shopping
• 40 percent of African Americans consider their mobile phone as "very important" this holiday shopping season -- caucasians ranked lowest, 24 percent
• Half of Asian Americans have used their phones to comparison shop while in the store
• 14 percent of respondents have used mobile coupons, and 30 percent are more likely to do so during the holidays

As I've for so long asserted, mobile phones are more personal than the personal computer. The PC's biggest benefit is it's unusual Jack-of-all-trades characteristic, something smartphones share but more portably. The phone goes everywhere, including the mall.

I'll ask again: How do you use your phone to shop? Please answer in comments.