How Moms Use Their iPhones
According to a new survey by mobile advertising network Greystripe, mothers with iPhones regularly let their children use their phones, download games specifically for their children and often use their phones at grocery stores to compare prices and check their grocery lists.
Not too long ago, mothers were still considered to be a hard group to reach through mobile applications because they tend to be late adopters. The iPhone's mainstream success has changed this, however, and iPhone moms have now become a desirable target demographic for marketers.
Greystripe is a brand-focused advertising network and obviously has an interest in making this group attractive for advertisers, but the statistics in this report seem pretty solid. Greystripe found the 1,294 respondents who filled out this survey through house ads on its own network.
The iPhone Mom
According to Greystripe, 96% of mothers with iPhones are involved in their family's purchasing decisions and 40% are the sole decision makers. Eighty percent have attended at least some college and are slightly more likely to have received a Graduate degree than the rest of the iPhone user base. The age of the children in these families skews slightly older, with 29% of the moms having children between 0 and 4, while 43% have children between 15 and 17.
How iPhone Moms Use Their Phones: Shopping and Keeping the Kids Entertained
What is more interesting, though, is how these moms use their iPhones. Fifty-nine percent of all iPhone moms let their children use their phones and 41% download games specifically for their children. Twenty percent also download educational content for their kids.
With regards to shopping, 79% of all iPhone moms use their phones for 'shopping related activities.' The majority of these activities consist of locating stores (60%). Thirty-nine percent also use the phone to compare prices. Nineteen percent of iPhone moms download coupons, 23% look for items on sale and 37% use their phones to learn about products.
When it comes to using the phone in stores, 42% of the mothers who responded to the Greystripe survey said that they regularly use their phones at the grocery store. Grocery list applications - or just the Notes app on the iPhone and iPod touch - are the most popular uses for the iPhone and 19% of all moms use these. Thirteen percent of moms also use the phone to look up prices in the store itself - which explains the popularity of apps like Red Laser.
As Greystripe's founder and CEO Michael Chang told us last week, this data shows how the iPhone has become a tool for everyday life for this demographic. This group tends to have a large influence over everyday purchase decisions in their families and these iPhone moms often use their phones to make a good number of these decisions, which make them an attractive target for marketers.
This study also shows that there is a large market for apps that are specifically geared towards this demographic, including mobile price comparison apps or apps that can deliver mobile coupons - and a lot of iPhone dads will probably be interested in these apps as well.
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Chalk me up as an iPhone Dad I guess, and my wife as an iPhone Mom. We've both got at least one app on our phones specifically for our 2yr old son to play with, and we regularly text eachother grocery lists. I've also used my phone to locate stores, though it was for auto parts, not groceries. I know my wife also regularly uses voice search to look up local business/store phone numbers. (fwiw, I'm posting this from my phone too, haha)
Something wrong with the 2nd graph...
68% mark lower than 50% mark on Y-axis.
Plus if you add all bars within the Yes bucket they come out to be 62%. But shouldn't that sum be 100% (i.e. 100% of all Yes gang). Or it may add up to 100-68=42%. (the 42% is less likely as one mom can be counted within multiple sub-buckets)
Please clarify.
mchndr
Hi Frederic
we got here a great show case of iPhone mom apps if you want to use it for your post
http://appsfire.com/selection.php?cid=1256566693-817414402&title=theiPhonemom+Apps
Ouriel Ohayon
AppsFire
Thanks for the interesting iPhone statistics! Just this morning I was climbing into my car to leave for work and had a brief moment of panic when I realized I'd left my iPhone in my condo. I thought, do I run the three flights of stairs up and arrive a few minutes late to work, or do I just take off. Then I thought about the times the iPhone had saved me from getting lost with its GPS directions, how I could check my email with a click of the button or do my finances using an app. Needless to say, I went back. I could never leave home with out it!
I think that iPhones are great for moms. The games for themselves and their kids are really popular, there are also many apps to make their lives easier which help, everything from shopping guides to how tos.
We have a best iPhone apps for moms post anyone can check out:
http://www.radicalparenting.com/2009/06/27/10-best-and-worst-iphone-apps-for-teens-and-parents/
Superb article. Women spend a huge chunk of the family budget so it is interesting to see who they are using their iPhones.
Keeping the kids occupied with games is interesting, but the shopping stats are a big sign of things to come. I suppose you could glean that women will be using a lot of location based augmented reality iphone services next year..
Learning about items and then having a shopping list right on the same device is also very interesting...
Great work Vanessa! Best, Tim - Seattle.
I always told everyone that my iPhone is my best friend. I have had the 3G for over a year and I've only left it home once. SInce my post (http://bubblesncups.wordpress.com/2009/06/17/my-iphone-is-my-bff/), I've added other apps, but the gadget is absolutely amazing! It has definitely made my life easier.
I'm a mom with 2 teenagers, 16 and 19, so my kids don't use my phone (they have iTouchs). I don't go anywhere without my iPhone. I outgrew the original iPhone (needed more memory for my music collection), so just got the 3GS. I use it for everything and will defend it to any naysayers, had to do this Saturday at my daughter's soccer game to a Sprint employee. Thank you Apple for such a great pocket computer!!!
Great data here -- thanks for sharing. In that spirit, if you're a parent looking for great apps for your kids, theikidsblog is a resource worth checking out.
Here's a list of some of the top apps for kids that they put together: http://bit.ly/greatkidsapps
Hope that's as helpful to some of you as this data was.
Cheers to Greystripe for sharing.
I would imagine that many moms also use their iPhones for checking email, taking important phone calls, and conducting business, since the last time I checked, women are more than just incubators and child-rearers.
What were the questions on the survey? If they were all about child-rearing and shopping then I'd dare say those reflect more about Greystripe's attitude toward women with children than about the women themselves. After all, aren't many (if not most) of these "moms" also highly educated professionals? Wouldn't they be using their iPhones for purposes unrelated to their role as parents?
Agreed, this article is severely lacking in the details about the survey. Apparently the questions posed were: "do your children use your iPhone?", "how do you use the iPhone to help you shop?" and "do you use your iPhone in the grocery store?".
In other words, limited to some preconceived, gendered idea of what a mother does.
Very interesting article! I was particularly interested in these stats: "With regards to shopping, 79% of all iPhone moms use their phones for 'shopping related activities.' The majority of these activities consist of locating stores (60%)."
Those iPhone Moms who use their iPhone for shopping will be happy to learn about Point Inside, a free new iPhone/iPod Touch mall companion app -- it has interactive maps, restroom, restaurant, and ATM locators, a cool "find my car" feature, links to store sites, promos and events, and more.