Market research firm In-Stat/MDR reports that opportunities exist not just for wireless carriers, though they stand to reap the largest share, but for handset manufacturers, wireless application developers and publishers as well. Over the last couple of years, this market has not gone unnoticed by the wireless industry. Carriers, such as the industry giants Verizon Wireless, AT&T Wireless, and Cingular, have all rolled out pre-paid services specifically targeted at kids and young adults. Just last year, Sprint, in partnership with Virgin Mobile of the UK, rolled out a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO), called Virgin Mobile USA, tailored to appeal to the MTV Generation. These services have had varying levels of success in penetrating this target market and, collectively, have millions of subscribers in this age group. Boost Mobile, however, may have hit on a formula that will give them the edge over other companies in reaching what is viewed as a highly fickle customer segment. In a recent survey of both parents and young adults, In-Stat/MDR found the following: - The average age of a child whos parent supplied the mobile phone was most likely to be 19 or above, indicating that parents provide their children with their own phones as a safety tool when the children begin to move out of the house for the first time. - Youths were, by a substantial margin, more likely to be customers of Verizon Wireless, then any other single wireless carrier. - Youths, and particularly young adults, were highly likely to use wireless data services regularly. The report, Wireless Youth: Going Wireless, Wireless Youth Survey Results, reveals the result of a survey of parents of children and young adults aged 10 to 18, as well as young adults aged 18 to 25, to determine their attitudes towards wireless services and how they use them. The survey measured youth use of wireless by which carrier they use, how often they use their wireless services, whether they use wireless data, how often they use wireless data, what types of wireless data services they use, and their attitudes towards location-based services, including willingness to pay for them.
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