Nielsen: 35 Percent of U.S. Tweens Own a Mobile Phone

SAN FRANCISCO, December 4: According to the results of a
mobile usage study conducted by The Nielsen Company, 35 percent of tweens in
the U.S. own a mobile phone, with many using those devices at home to access
the Internet, listen to music and watch TV.

The Nielsen report, Kids on the Go: Mobile Usage by U.S.
Teens and Tweens, revealed that mobile
phones are a source of in-home entertainment for tweens. Fifty-eight percent of
tweens who download or watch TV on their phone do so at home, while 64 percent
of tweens download or play music on their phone at home and 56 percent of
tweens access the Internet on their phone at home.

In addition, 20 percent of tweens have used text messaging,
while 21 percent of tweens have used ring and answer tones. While
text-messaging and ringtones remain the most pervasive non-voice functions on
the phone, other content such as downloaded wallpapers, music, games and
Internet access also rank highly among tweens.

According to Nielsen, 5 percent of tweens access the
Internet over their phone each month. While 41 percent of tween mobile Internet
users say they do so while commuting or traveling (to school, for example),
mobile content such as the Internet is also a social medium for this audience:
26 percent of tween mobile Internet users say they access the web while at a
friend's house and 17 percent say they do so at social events.

"Tweens use their mobile phones, and media in general,
in very unique and important ways," said Jeff Herrmann, the VP of mobile
media for Nielsen Mobile. "Marketers and media executives need to understand
these 'digital natives' as they mature and reshape the way we all think about
new and traditional media."

Regarding the cross-media behavior of tweens, Nielsen found
that tweens spend less time surfing the Internet than teens, with 48 percent of
U.S. tweens stating that they spend less than one hour per day online. When
they are online, 70 percent of tweens use the Internet for gaming.
Comparatively, 81 percent of U.S. teens say they spend one hour or more per day
online, with e-mail being the most pervasive online activity for this age
group.

The report was conducted by Nielsen Mobile and BASES, two
services of Nielsen. Nielsen's research combines insights from survey responses
of more than 5,500 teens and tweens from the BASES ePanel. Additional data was
supplied from Nielsen Mobile's "Bill Panel" of more than 40,000
wireless lines as well as the third-quarter results from Nielsen Mobile's
75,000-person Audience and Behavior panel.

—By Irene Lew