We hear the expression all the time: "I'd be lost without my smartphone." Well, apparently we're not kidding.
A recent survey conducted by the Bank of America revealed that 47 percent of those questioned admitted they wouldn't last a full day without their smartphones.
The Bank of America survey also found that a majority consider their smartphone more important than the daily staples in their lives such as coffee and even television.
"Mobile phones have changed the way we live our daily lives and that extends to our finances as well," said Marc Warshawsky, senior vice president and mobile solutions executive at Bank of America.
The survey also discovered that being constantly connected has become such a part of our lives, the smartphone falls below only the Internet and personal hygiene when ranked by importance in people's lives. A shocking 91 percent of those surveyed said their smartphone is as important to them as their car.
Perhaps even more alarming is that 91 percent also claimed their beloved smartphone was just as important to them as deodorant.
With regard to Millennials, throw in another worrisome disregard for personal hygiene as they, too, put their smartphone alongside deodorant and even their toothbrush as something they could not do without.
OK, so what if these folks forget the device when they head out into the world? Well, roughly 30 percent said they would go back home to get the device, no matter the distance.
The survey also gathered info on mobile device habits and how people feel about what we're all doing with our smartphones. Thankfully, checking a phone while driving ranked as the most annoying offense in the survey (38 percent) and sharing too much personal information, either by talking too loudly in public (15 percent) or posting too many details on social media (15 percent) was ranked as the second most annoying mobile habit.
The telephone survey was done for Bank of America by Braun Research, a market research company. It surveyed 1,000 people older than age 18 with either a checking or savings account and a smartphone. Its reps also spoke with 300 adults in eight target markets: California, Florida, Texas, Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago and New York. The margin of error is 3.1 percent. The Trends in Mobility report (PDF) can be reviewed.
The love affair with the smartphone continues in the U.S. as over 120 million were sold in 2013 with Apple's iPhone accounting for 45 percent of those sales. Samsung was next with a 26 percent share of the 2013 U.S. smartphone market. Despite their dominance, some analysts feel 2014 could present challenges for both companies.
"With the fastest-growing segments of the industry in the lowest income demographics, both Apple and Samsung face challenges in 2014," explained Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD. "For Samsung this demographic is likely to be the most competitive segment of the market in 2014 and they have a very high dependency on sales here. Apple has the opposite problem of gaining share in the fast growing entry-level market while still maintaining its position as the dominant supplier to affluent consumers."
