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1 Cell phones as ubiquitous communication devices
The cell phone has become one of the most ubiquitous communication devices particularly among younger audiences ([69] Oksman, 2006) so that their value as status symbols is starting to diminish ([28] Geser, 2004). Recent statistics by the International Telecommunications Union ([39] ITU, 2011) indicate that there were almost 6 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide in 2011 with a global penetration of 87 percent in the developed and 79 percent in the developing world. Most of this growth has been driven by the increased penetration in the so-called BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) ([12] Cellular News , 2010). The countries under investigation in this study have varying degrees of cell phone penetrations with Finland leading the pack with 156.4 per 100 inhabitants. This is followed by 145.5 in United Arab Emirates, 114.9 in New Zealand, 70.7 in Canada, and 64.4 in China.
Adolescents and young adults as a group of cell phone users have been called the "sweet spot" of the communications industry ([13] Charny, 2002; [62] McVicker, 2001) indicating that they are the early adopters of new technology. In addition the extant literature regarding the mobile phone usage suggests that adolescents and young adults use the cell phone in different ways than older users. For example, the portability of the cell phone involves additional privacy and autonomy for younger people because the calls can be made away from authority ([6] Auter, 2007; [36] Henderson et al. , 2002; [52] Ling and Yttri, 2002). In a study of cell phone features, [29] Glasscock and Wogalter (2006) identified a negative correlation between age and mobile phone feature preferences indicating that most cell phone features are less likely to be used with increasing age.
Human development theories recognize the importance of the inflection point between adolescents/young adults and older people ([24], [25] Erikson, 1982, 1998; [71] Oksman and Rautiainen, 2003) suggesting potential differences between adolescents/young adults and older people regarding the usage of the cell phone, and therefore perhaps feasibility of using age as a primary segmentation variable along these age groups. In spite of the fact that the human development theories indicate developmental changes between adolescence/young adulthood and older age groups, they do not extend to explaining for possible...