Disruption: Is a Smartphone or Car the Must-Have Product for Teenagers?
By Rob Scott
November 28, 2011
November 28, 2011
- In a soon to be published survey, Gartner reports that 46 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds would choose Internet access over having their own vehicle.
- “The car used to be the signal of adulthood, of freedom,” says Sheryl Connelly of Ford. “It was the signal into being a grown-up. Now, the signal into adulthood for teenagers is the smartphone.”
- “Mobile devices, gadgets and the Internet are becoming must-have lifestyle products that convey status,” explains Gartner’s Thilo Koslowski. “In that sense these devices offer a degree of freedom and social reach that previously only the automobile offered.”
- Connected cars may help change this emerging trend — cars that can take pictures and make calls and interact with social networks.
- “In other words, to entice teenagers, Ford and other automakers need to make their cars more like smartphones,” suggests The New York Times.
2 Comments
I can buy into the “social reach” and “status” arguments, but take issue with the idea of smartphones as a signal of “freedom.” Gartner should do a study asking how many times 18- to 24-year-olds call or text their parents every day on their smartphones. My first car was not merely a symbol of adulthood, but a means of no longer feeling “connected” to my parents. The times, they are a changin’…
I can buy into the “social reach” and “status” arguments, but take issue with the idea of smartphones as a signal of “freedom.” Gartner should do a study asking how many times 18- to 24-year-olds call or text their parents every day on their smartphones. My first car was not merely a symbol of adulthood, but a means of no longer feeling “connected” to my parents. The times, they are a changin’…
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