Mobile phones have become indispensable in our daily life, with many owners making certain they are ready for a quick-draw at any moment of their waking hours. But a recent poll showed that many Asians have taken this a step further, particularly among Japanese (67%) who said that they have taken calls when they were sleeping or trying to sleep.
According to the Synovate survey, commissioned by Windows Mobile, most Asians have no qualms about using their phones in any place or any situation.
Dubbed 'How Mobile Are You,' the study polled some 2,500 people in Australia, China, India, Japan and Taiwan from September to December 2008.
While most people would dread sitting through a flight beside a passenger gabbing throughout the trip, the majority of Asians (58%) believe the use of mobile phones should be allowed during flights. Most Chinese felt that this would enable them to keep in touch with friends and family.
In a region where face-to-face interaction is vital in doing business, one in every four said they use their phones in the middle of meetings. If you dine out with an Asian, chances are he or she will use a phone during the meal, with 80% reporting that they do. And when you are commuting with an Australian, the driver will most like use a phone, as six out of every 10 of them said they do.
If you're in the loo and someone is on their handset, you are probably in Taiwan or China, where two of every three people do this as a matter of course. If small screens lighting up are ruining your movie viewing, you may be in India where 69% of respondents think the cinema should not be off limits for phones. In fact, 79% of Indians are busy with the gadgets at a wedding ceremony and 21% of them do so even in a place of worship.
And why not‾ More people are managing not only important business but personal relationships as well over the phone. Almost 60% Chinese and Indians find it acceptable for a marriage proposal to be made over the phone.
The Chinese (79%) are most likely to flirt with their partners over SMS while the Taiwanese (20%) are most likely to use their mobile phones during 'extremely intimate moments.'
This is probably why half of the Taiwanese polled would like to use GPS to track the whereabouts of their partners. More so, married women across Asia are more likely to check their spouse's phone's SMS/caller history than men, with Japanese women leading the pack at 71%.
With the mobile the center of all this serious business, most parents across the region (74%) agree that children under the age of 12 should not be given a handset.
Looking beyond usage to handset attributes, about two-thirds of Chinese, Indians and Taiwanese favor touch-screen phones. Three of every four Japanese prefer a flip phone and Australians want the more traditional numeric keypad.
Asians look at price as the most important overall factor when choosing a mobile phone, with 70% Japanese ranking price at the top. Brand is the next most important criteria for Chinese (71%) and Indians (65%).