Pew: Over Third of Americans Have Smartphones

More than a third of American adults (35%) have a smartphone, and a quarter of those use it as their primary online access device.

That is according to the Pew Internet Project's first stand-alone study of smartphone ownership.

Smartphone ownership tends to skew toward higher household income -- 59% of adults in households with over $75,000 per year in income, and minorities, with 44% of blacks and Latinos using smartphones.

There remains an urban/suburban vs. rural gap, with the former twice as likely to own a smartphone as those in rural areas. The Obama administration is trying to boost that latter figure by promoting wireless broadband deployment nationwide.

Pew conducted 2,277 interviews  by phone -- landline and cell phone/smartphone -- April 26-May 22, 2011.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.