Although the industry is immense, it is not at all homogenous, with differing devices, networks, services and consumer behaviors throughout the world. This detailed report from Deloitte provides an interesting look at the current state and important trends in the global mobile industry.

Some of the main topics investigated included the diversity of devices, and the growing number of devices that people own or have access to. In fact, for many countries the average is more than 5 devices, and for some developing countries it is up to 8 devices.

Another key factor is the variation of mobile device ownership and usage by age, especially for the 55+ age group. In many developed countries fully a third of the over-18 population is over 55, and by 2050, 17 developed countries are expected to have a median age above 50.

Not only is the smartphone penetration for the 18 to 34 year old segment over twice that for the 55+ segment, but also the 55+ group uses less of the features of their device. The chart below looks at the percentage of smartphone owners that have never downloaded an app, and compares the over 55 group with the overall average.

The report also shows that tablet ownership is much closer between the age groups, indicating that perhaps the larger form factor device will be the preferred mobile platform for and aging population.

The survey covers many other topics, including the evolution and key trends in the area of messaging.

Mobile internet enabled smartphones, tablets, social media sites, personal media players, Twitter – all of these are now used on a daily basis by a large sector of the population.

But who actually is using what media, and when? Ad Age, MBAOnline, and Magid GS produced a very interesting infographic which answers this question!

One of the best features of this infographic is that media consumption is broken down by generation, profiling the Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials, Teen Millennials and newly christened iGen.

This provides a great opportunity for comparison across generations.

Another key feature is that the data is presented by time of day. This lets you see, for example, that when Gen X is at work all Internet activities shoot up in usage, while newspaper reading drops out completely.

For a larger view, visit the original infographic site.

Nielsen, a global leader in measurement and information, has put together a snapshot of the media habits of the teen generation.

Mobile Video, Texting, Social Media, Mobile Advertising – Nielsen looks at all of these in their report.

Nielsen collects information from many sources, and releases a wide variety of reports. This media habit snapshot is from their NielsenWire blog, and includes some findings that may surprise you.

• Mobile Video

Teens are the heaviest mobile video viewers, watching almost twice as much as average. Overall, mobile subscribers ages 12-17 watched 7 hours 13 minutes of mobile video a month in Q4 2010, compared to 4 hours 20 minutes for the general population.

• Mobile Advertising

Teens are actually more receptive to mobile advertising than their elders. This is in contrast to the often portrayed teen attitude of being fiercely independent and not easily influenced. In fact, more than half (58%) surveyed in September 2010 said they “always” or “sometimes” look at mobile ads.

• SMS

Teens out-text all other age groups – not a surprising result, but the numbers are staggering. In Q1 2011, teens 13-17 sent an average of 3,364 mobile texts per month, more than doubling the rate of the next most active texting demo, 18-24 year olds (1,640 texts per month).

• Talking

Teens talk less on the phone than other segments of the population, something that goes against the typical image many people have of teens. Besides seniors 65-plus, teens talk the least on their phones, talking an average of 515 minutes per month in Q1 2011 versus more than 750 minutes among 18-24 year olds.

• Online Time

Teens spend less time on their computers. American 18 year olds averaged 39 hours, 50 minutes online from their home computers, of which 5 hours, 26 minutes was spent streaming online video per month.

• Social Media

Teens grew up in the age of social media. While they make up just 7.4 percent of those using social networks, 78.7 percent of 12-17 year olds visited social networks or blogs.

• TV Watching

Teens watch less TV than the general population. The average American watched 34 hours 39 minutes of TV per week in Q4 2010, a year-over-year increase of two minutes. Teens age 12-17 watch the least amount of TV on average (23 hours 41 minutes per week).

Nielsen has a strong history of investigating the media habits of various sectors of the population. Previously they published a very interesting study “How Teens Use Media”, which provides a more in-depth look at the way this group interacts with various types of media.

Even though it was completed almost 2 years ago, it still provides insights that are still relevant. Specifically, the study examines several common “myths” about the teenage population, and provides evidence that these are in fact no true.

For example, the study concludes that:
• Teens are NOT abandoning TV for new media.
• Teens love the Internet…but spend far less time browsing than adults.
• Teens’ favorite TV shows, top websites and genre preferences across
   media are mostly the same as those of their parents.
• Teens are not driving the growth of online video, in fact they are
   watching less than their elders.

Sales of this new product category are expected to grow from about 20 million units in 2010 to over 200 million units in 2014, with changes in regional and product feature mix.

Media Tablets

According to Gartner, a media tablets are “slate devices that support touch and run a lightweight OS such as iOS (Apple), Android (Google), WebOS (Palm) or Meego (Nokia). Examples of media tablets are the Apple iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab and the Cisco Cius.”

In terms of usage, Gartner VP of Research Carolina Milanesi commented, “tablets are not mini-notebooks and they are certainly not Tablet PCs. If you think this market will be as small as the mini-notebook market you are looking at media tablets like younger siblings of a PC rather than older siblings of smartphones. Media tablets have much more in common with a smartphone than a PC.”

Rapid growth with a changing mix

Projected annual shipments for this category of device is shown below.

As a comparison, Gartner predicts that in 2014 close to 500 million phones with an ASP higher than $300 will be sold around the world.

Geographically, North America will initially lead the way, with 61 percent of media tablet sales in 2010. However as the devices become more widely distributed, international markets will grow to represent 57 percent of the sales by 2014.

The physical features of media tablets are also expected to evolve over time. Milanesi continued, “While we expect 7inch tablets to be popular in the short term due to the limitations of Android and because they are closer to smartphones we expect that in the long run 10inch tablets will be more successful as they offer a superior experience.”

These devices normally require some sort of communication capability, either WiFi, a cellular (eg 3G) connection, or both. During 2010 tablets with both kinds of communications will be just over half the shipments, but this number will rise to 80% by 2014.

From business to personal use

In this early stage market, many of these devices are being used as “notebook companions”: simpler, lighter devices that users take on the road to give faster, more convenient access to information. Interestingly, because the tablet is often the third device a person uses (in addition to a notebook and a mobile phone), many companies are not paying for them, leaving the user to pay themselves.

Longer term, media tablets are expected to become a family purchase as well. Presence in the home is expected to grow rapidly for uses such as playing games, watching video content, reading books and magazines, surfing the web, updating your status on your social network.