E-mail use on portable devices has nearly doubled since 2004, according to a new survey from AOL. And some users may be taking the “Crackberry” joke a bit too literally.
The survey, conducted among 4025 e-mail U.S. users by AOL and Opinion Research Corp., found that the average e-mail user checks his or her inbox about five times a day. Of the users with portable devices capable of receiving e-mail, 59% said they check every time a new message arrives. Forty-three percent of that group said they sleep with the portable device nearby so they can hear the signal for incoming mail.
A majority of mobile e-mailers said they have checked or written e-mail in bed (59%) and in the bathroom (53%). Thirty-seven percent reported handling e-mail chores while driving a car, and 12% said they had done so in church.
About 15% of respondents described themselves as “addicted to e-mail”. About four in 10 users said they consider it important to ensure e-mail access when they’re planning a vacation, and 83% admit to checking their e-mail daily while on vacation.
And gauged by the number of residents with multiple e-mail accounts, Washington D.C. is the most compulsive e-mail town around. Eighty-two percent of citizens there have more than one active account. Atlanta, New York, San Francisco and Houston round out the top five.
“E-mail is becoming more and more accessible, and people continue to take advantage of that,” said Regina Lewis, an online consumer advisor who writes for AOL. “As the survey data shows, portable devices — like e-mail itself — are becoming more prevalent and easier to use.”
Whether these e-mailers’ plight makes them any more receptive to marketing messages is a lot less clear — particularly on mobile devices. Last week a separate survey by e-mail service provider Exact Target reported that 56% of smartphone users said they were less likely to open commercial e-mail on their mobile devices than on their PCs. In that survey, 55% of respondents said they flagged those messages for later reading on a desktop or laptop computer.
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