The gender divide: Mobile gets girly

In a market traditionally dominated by men, it appears that most people might actually be asking their teenage daughters how to operate their cell phones. According to a report issued today by Multimedia Intelligence, last year 91% of 17-year-old girls in the U.S. had cell phones — higher than the 78% of 17-year-old boys that owned one. This disparity was exacerbated after the age of 13, when 57% of all teenagers had a mobile device.

The growth in teen girls’ mobile interest was steady from ages 13 to 17, whereas teenage males had a strong take-up only at age 13 and age 16. In 2006, one million 13-year-old teen boys had cell phones, more than 40% higher than the 12-year-old teen boy segment. Last year, that number grew to 1.6 million, almost 30% higher than 15-year-old males. Females ages 15 to 16, on the other hand, only had a difference of 6%.

Any way you look at it, the teen market is especially attractive to mobile operators. These new cell phone users, either on family plans or spending on their own for the first time, represent new customers and, often, the ones most likely to spend more money for ringtones, wallpapers, games or applications. Even more than that, they are teaching their parents how to use the devices, according to the report.

Of these teen users, the females clearly cannot be ignored. Sophia Stuart, director of mobile digital media for Hearst Magazines, is even willing to take it one step further, dubbing the entire future of mobile as decidedly female. Hearst, which publishes women’s titles such as Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping and Redbook, has sites that are typically female-focused down to the content, advertising and applications.

Carriers, too, have responded to the gender distinction, but primarily in superficial ways: cell phones named the Chocolate or Blackberry Pearl and commercials featuring a dad using his daughter’s bright pink boa key-chained, bedazzled flip phone to make the opposite association. There may, however, be more that can be done to reach out to both this burgeoning female segment and the teen segment in general. Whether the answer is in marketing, handset design or advertising on the mobile platform, the time to reach them is now.

With more than 16 million mobile users ages 12 to 17 last year, a 12% growth from 2006, the market is clearly sizable — at least for now. Multimedia Intelligence is already seeing a saturation point in teen usage. As teens tend to do, they will get bored. By 2012, the number of teen subscribers will reach 17 million — a measly 1 million more than last year. Not traditionally a multiple handset demographic, the teen market is in danger of stagnation.

Frank Dickson, chief research officer for the firm, called the different consumption patterns in the teen segment remarkable. He stressed that to maximize subscriber gains, carriers need to strike when the iron is hot. It means they’ll have to remember that the 16-year-old girl gabbing on her bejeweled RAZR at the mall or texting at 100 mph on her Sidekick could hold the key to their success.

Email me at sreedy@telephonyonline.com.