While there has been quite the kerfuffle about banning texting while driving and educating Australian youngsters on text speak, a new survey shows that the vast majority of us haven't even sent a single SMS. Research firm Ipsos MediaCT polled individuals in a variety of countries and came to one general conclusion: If folks are using SMS, "they're using it frequently." On the flip-side, those who aren't savvy with text messaging aren't apt to just dabble in it. For instance, 82% of respondents in America said "that they never used text messaging, while 3% said that they used it monthly or less" and 15% reported using it "every week or even more. Who knows what that figure would be if carriers stopping charging an arm and a leg for per-use messaging.

[Via Textually, image courtesy of ugo]

A reader was sent a rather revealing "consumer survey" this week, and though the carrier (or manufacturer) responsible for commissioning it wasn't revealed, we're thinking AT&T may have been behind this one. Why's that? Well, several phones -- most real, one rendered -- were shown during the course of the survey, and one of the devices was an AT&T-branded Pantech QWERTY slider that we've straight up never seen before, so unless there's some funny business going on, no other carrier should have access to that intel. In fact, the whole survey was focused on text messaging and text-centric, QWERTY handsets, asking questions about what sorts of form factors and features customers would like to see to improve their messaging experience. Also pictured were a Sidekick Slide (presumably for comparison's sake), a Samsung QWERTY slider sporting looks similar to the i620 and i640 (minus Windows Mobile, seemingly), and a rendered, unbranded device touting a gargantuan display and a number of available colors. The reader was asked what name they thought best suited this particular phone, and the choices were "Blaze," "Quickfire," and "Reveal." Needless to say, we're not so sure how we feel about putting an "AT&T Blaze" in our pockets -- but if it happens, at least we know who to blame.

[Thanks, anonymous tipster]

In a Harris Interactive survey of 2,030 US adults of whom, 1,778 have actually flown in an airplane, a full three quarters say that cellphone usage on airplanes should be restricted to "non-talking features." In other words, email, texting, and surfing the Web. That's a pretty significant majority seeing as how the EC has cleared the way for calls within European airspace. 69% of consumers agreed that if voice calls are permitted, a special "talking zone" should be established so that other passengers are not interrupted. While the survey reflects our own opinions, take note that the results benefit sites like Yahoo! Mobile, the very company which commissioned the survey. It's also worth highlighting a comment made by a certain Miss Teen, South Carolina who said, "That some US Americans should be unable to do so, because, uh, some-a people out there in our nation don't have cellphones, and such as, maps." Good point.

Hold everything -- did you have any idea surging cellphone use was putting a damper on landline utilization? Oh, right, common knowledge. Anywho, a recent study conducted here in America found that three in ten households actually relied solely or primarily on their mobile to communicate. In the latter half of 2007, it was discovered that 16-percent of domiciles didn't even have a landline, while 13-percent had one but took all (or nearly all) of their calls via cell. Just to put things in perspective, only 5-percent of US homes were cellphone-only in 2004, while 1.082-percent had not yet surrendered their can-and-string. If you're one of those number lovers, hold your head up high and hit the read link for lots more data about this totally engrossing topic.

[Image courtesy of Preston LNO]

Remember that AT&T iPhone survey that was floating around last year? The carrier's back at it again with another round of rather fanciful sounding upgrades and changes to the iPhone and the way it's sold and serviced. First up, AT&T wanted to know whether we'd upgrade to the 3G iPhone -- a device that "Apple and AT&T have announced," so it says. Next, we were presented with a series of "potential enhancements" (pictured) and asked how we felt about each one. In particular, DVR control and the ability to use the iPhone "as a credit card" caught our eye; we're not sure if they're suggesting NFC integration or something far less techy here, but if there's one way to light NFC on fire stateside, it might just be support from the Apple mothership. Since the iChat app suggested in the last survey never materialized, of course, this could be nothing more than wishful thinking on AT&T's part -- not to say we can blame 'em.

While Verizon and T-Mobile shared honors in a customer service survey just two months back, it was regional carrier Alltel snagging most of the gold in a recent J.D. Power and Associates survey of wireless call quality. Reportedly, said carrier was able to take the "sole or partial top spot in three of the report's six regions," while Verizon stood on top in two regions, US Cellular in one and T-Mobile (along with Alltel) in another. The data was gathered from 24,570 respondents that were questioned about dropped calls, static / interference, failed connection on the first try, voice distortion, echoes, no immediate voicemail notification, and no immediate text message notification. Interestingly, the study also found that "customers using 3G handsets experienced fewer call quality issues," and while call quality problems reported by folks using CDMA happened around 14 times out of every 100 calls, nearly a quarter of calls from those on the iDEN network were primarily about problems with call quality. Check out the full spill in the read below, we won't tell anyone you're a number lover.

Well golly, no wonder Palm's gone on the attack against RIM. Corporate users have historically been the bread and butter of Palm's Treo line of smartphones, and with BlackBerrys of all shapes and sizes continuing to eat every other manufacturers' lunch in that profitable arena, it only makes sense that the company would be feeling more heat than ever. We're forced to take these stats with a grain of salt seeing how ChangeWave doesn't explain its surveying methods in its overview, but we've no reason to doubt the findings that 73 percent of corporate users are doled out a BlackBerry -- the same as was reported in November of last year -- while only 18 percent get a Treo, down from 28 percent a year ago. Now granted, these numbers represent the percentage of devices actually issued, which we suppose could be quite a bit different than what employees would prefer to be issued, but we doubt the difference is enough to equalize these two. What now, Palm?

[Via Palm Infocenter]

We know it's probably going to be pretty hard to believe this, but according to a recent survey of mobile phone users, Palm ranks absolutely last in customer satisfaction. If you believe what the folks at ChangeWave Research have to say (and the 4,182 people they questioned), only 30-percent of Palm users reported being "very satisfied" with their device, while companies like Apple and RIM garnered 72-percent and 55-percent, respectively. Of course, considering current trends with the company, and the fact that it's just started paying out to users for repeated repairs on devices, this doesn't come as much shock. The report demonstrates that users are moving to smartphones at an alarming rate -- but with rankings like this, they're probably avoiding Palm devices. Guys, it might take a little more than Bono to fix this mess.

Update: Our friends at Palm contacted us with some supplemental information which they wanted to get across concerning this research and related studies. According to them, two separate, third-party firms (Satmetrix and Russell Research) conducted studies which came to the opposite conclusion of ChangeWave's work. In their words: "The Satmetrix survey found that 65-percent of respondents rated their overall satisfaction with Palm as an 8-10 out of 10. Also, the Russell Research study found that 56-percent of respondents were either "very satisfied" or "extremely satisfied" with their Palm smartphone device."

[Via Palm Infocenter]

Though we can't say we're entirely shocked -- after all, it's not like some other handset will really satisfy when you've had your eye on that one -- a recent survey conducted by Opinion Research Corporation found that smartphones were the number one returned gadget this holiday season. Granted, the study was one of online nature, and neither Apple's iPhone nor any of RIM's BlackBerrys were included (um, why not?), but we digress. Reportedly, more than one-fifth (21-percent, to be precise) of smartphone recipients surveyed said they hustled back to the store shortly after gift giving was over and promptly returned it, and comically enough, the "inability to understand the product setup process was cited as the primary reason" that consumers did so. 'Tis a shame, really. [Warning: PDF read link]

[Via textually, image courtesy of LawyersAndSettlements]

We typically expect to see T-Mobile top J.D. Power's wireless customer satisfaction surveys, but it seems Verizon's been sneaking up on the peeps in pink. In Volume 2 of its 2007 study -- Volume 1 having come out in May -- Verizon has ended T-Mobile's 5-period streak atop the rankings, scoring 726 on a 1000 point scale to take the crown. To be fair, T-Mobile slides in just one measly point behind at 725, but it's still gotta smart a bit to lose the title. AT&T, Alltel, and Sprint Nextel round out the top five, scoring 708, 695, and 679, respectively. Not even Verizon really deserves to pop the bubbly here, though, seeing how the survey represents a 12-point slide in industry average satisfaction year over year and a 7-point decline since the last reporting period. Maybe the whole prorated ETF fad will start to turn things around?

[Via MobileBurn]

We've given you your chance to choose a champion amongst the iPhone, HTC Touch and LG Prada, and while the latter wasn't included at LG's request, the other two were recently pit against Nokia's N95 in a study of usability. The test was reportedly conducted by Perceptive Sciences, a Texas-based usability consulting firm, and relied on data from just ten individuals who had "never used any of the three devices." The group was asked to "perform a series of tasks on each handset with quantifiable results, such as the time needed to find and use the on / off switch," and when all was said and done, the iPhone managed to snag the gold. Of course, we wouldn't take these results to be the bonafide truth, but if you're interested in seeing what all the mobiles (and guinea pigs) went through before a winner was chosen, head on over to the read link.

[Via iLounge]

Although the necessity (or desire, actually) for integrated mobile entertainment in one's phone has long been argued over, we can't help but notice that the fad is ever-so-methodically catching on. Recently, a consumer study from Parks Associates found that LG and Samsung handsets led the way in "advanced mobile entertainment features," noting that their cellphones were more likely to support mobile TV, music, and games in the US. More specifically, nearly 12-percent of LG / Samsung owners reported having the aforementioned features, while just eight-percent of Moto users checked the box and nary a single Nokia respondent claimed to have such luxuries. Hmm, we're guessing the N95 owners were all too preoccupied to represent?

[Via mocoNews]

Let's face it: the prototypical handset user isn't apt to favor advertising much at all, but a recent research study commissioned by mobile media publisher MoMac found that owners seemed to prefer the tried and true text-based flavor when all was said and done. More specifically, 56-percent of the 1,400 surveyed favored text-based ads, while picture / banner ads came in as the second most popular with a thumbs-up given by some 29-percent of respondents. Interestingly, a quarter of the males in the crowd preferred video advertising over all other methods, and the 16-to-24 age group was found to like video ads nearly twice as much as those 55 years or older. So, how's about you, dear readers? Do the less invasive text-based plugs gather your love more often than those oh-so-tempting videos?

[Image courtesy of TheRawFeed]

While we're inclined to believe that most of those surveyed are just too lazy to disconnect their landline which hasn't been used in the past 24 months except for picking up a few stray telemarketing plugs, a recent Harris poll reportedly shows that a whopping 81-percent of US adults still have a landline phone in their home. Notably, 77-percent of the test population also had a cellphone while 16-percent had warmed up to VoIP, but a paltry 11-percent of the participants admitted to relying solely on cellphones to get their yap on. Of course, the generational trend was in full effect, as the majority (55-percent) of that small chunk was of the younger set between the ages of 18 and 29. So, dear readers, how many of you are still keeping your landline provider in business for a medium you could easily do without?

Ah yes, toilet Internet -- it doesn't get much better then that when privacy and escaping from strict office 'net policies are key. In a T-Mobile commissioned poll of a couple thousand folks in England, 48 percent of them are using their mobile phones for Internet access at workplaces where Internet use is not allowed or severely limited. Further findings also point out that as many as 25 percent of users know they have access on their handsets, but aren't sure how to use it (we can now start to see how this poll may be helpful to T-Mobile). Armed with these findings T-Mobile has launched the "Set the Internet Free" campaign, and will set you up with its web'n'walk service for only the cost of a trip to your local T-Mobile shop. All of this of course leads to a couple of our own results from this poll: first, get 'em hooked, then raise the tariffs once they've adopted.

[Via textually.org]