ComScore just released a new report on U.S. smartphone penetration – or, if you don’t like the sound of that, call it the percentage of a certain market using smartphones.
Bottom line: everyone has a smartphone. Actually, about 77% – but that’s a whole lot. When you look at the younger generations, it’s even more staggering.
“Millennials continue to be the pace-setters for smartphone adoption, with 18-24 year olds and 25-34 year olds both hovering around 90 percent adoption. While teens have historically had slower adoption rates than their slightly older counterparts, they have been making up ground quickly and are now at 85 percent,” says ComScore.
Would you like to see what 90% smartphone penetration looks like? Here’s a recent performance on The TODAY Show, and speaking of penetration, it just so happens to be The Weeknd performing his track “Earned It” off the 50 Shades of Grey soundtrack.
Ok, not everyone in the crowd is between the ages of 18 and 24, but the percentage of 13-17, 25-34, and 35-44-year-olds with smartphones isn’t far off that 90% mark:
“When I was growing up in the 1980s, cable TV was still seen as something of a luxury and I remember that several of my childhood friends not having it in their households. By the time the 1990s rolled around, almost everyone I knew had cable. It wasn’t that cable had gotten any more affordable, it was just that what was happening on cable TV had grown as a part of our culture. At some point those who could afford cable TV and didn’t have it probably began to feel like they weren’t keeping up with the times,” says ComScore’s Andrew Lipsman.
Precisely. If it’s not on Instagram, did it even f*cking happen?