Study: More Cellular-only Homes as Americans Expand Mobile Media Usage.

The latest Nielsen Convergence Audit – an annual survey on voice, video and data products – shows a rise in households who have “cut the cord” by trading their traditional landlines for wireless cellular services and an increase in mobile media device usage among a diverse set of households. The survey collects more than 32,000 U.S. online and mail respondents.

Cutting The Cord

While an overwhelming majority, 88%, of U.S. households have a wireless phone in 2009, most still maintain a traditional landline at home. However, this is changing. In the second quarter of 2009, over one in five households reported they are wireless cellular only—an increase of 16% from the past year. This increase comes from the two-thirds of households who have dropped their landlines as well as from young adults that started new households with just a wireless phone service.

This year all media player products in the market have seen growth. Given an increase in availability, product options and cost reductions, these types of products have become more mainstream. With one-third of households owning gaming devices and digital video recorders, they are becoming well established products that continue to exhibit healthy year-over-year growth rates. Growth of portable MP3 music players without video capabilities leveled off in 2009 at 25%. Adoption of other alternative media player products is still in the early stages, although all have exhibited growth this year. Most notable are devices that offer video capabilities.

To download Nielsen’s 2009 Convergence Audit CLICK on link below:
http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/09-Nielsen-Convergence-Audit.pdf>