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It Isn't Just for Phone Calls Anymore...

Whether it's time for graduation presents, birthdays, holidays, back-to-school or off to university, life with teens means a lot of shopping – for clothes, for school supplies and for the newest wireless communications products. Here are some fast facts to bring you up to speed on the latest in wireless:

• According to Decima Research, young people ages 13 to 24 are the largest group of wireless phone users in Canada.

• A recent Trendscan study found that 52% of Canadian youth have their own wireless phones.

• According to the Yankee Group, teen wireless users in the U.S. generated close to US$5 billion in service revenues in 2003.

• A recent NPD Group study found wireless phones are becoming an important "coming of age" marker. The study found teens ages 13 to 17 spent 10% less in the past year on clothing, and had shifted their spending to their wireless phones.

Youth use their wireless phones for far more than just phone calls. Check out these cool facts:

• Global sales of wireless ringtones, including pop songs and TV themes, hit US$3.2 billion in 2003, an increase of 40% over 2002, according to the ARC Group.

• Strategy Analytics reported that ringtones were the items most commonly downloaded to wireless phones (49%), with screen savers and images second at 29% and games third at 16%.

• The fast growth of wireless chat and text messaging has meant a decline in the number of young people using online chat rooms, according to a study by Mobile Youth. Only 27% now use desktop Internet access to chat, down from a high of 75% in 1999. 93% of those surveyed now use text messaging every day – and 3% send more than 40 messages a day.

Source: News Canada

also see -> Whr R U @? - text messaging made simple