According to a new survey by mobile advertising network Greystripe, mothers with iPhones regularly let their children use their phones, download games specifically for their children and often use their phones at grocery stores to compare prices and check their grocery lists.

Not too long ago, mothers were still considered to be a hard group to reach through mobile applications because they tend to be late adopters. The iPhone's mainstream success has changed this, however, and iPhone moms have now become a desirable target demographic for marketers.

Greystripe is a brand-focused advertising network and obviously has an interest in making this group attractive for advertisers, but the statistics in this report seem pretty solid. Greystripe found the 1,294 respondents who filled out this survey through house ads on its own network.


The iPhone Mom

According to Greystripe, 96% of mothers with iPhones are involved in their family's purchasing decisions and 40% are the sole decision makers. Eighty percent have attended at least some college and are slightly more likely to have received a Graduate degree than the rest of the iPhone user base. The age of the children in these families skews slightly older, with 29% of the moms having children between 0 and 4, while 43% have children between 15 and 17.





How iPhone Moms Use Their Phones: Shopping and Keeping the Kids Entertained


What is more interesting, though, is how these moms use their iPhones. Fifty-nine percent of all iPhone moms let their children use their phones and 41% download games specifically for their children. Twenty percent also download educational content for their kids.

With regards to shopping, 79% of all iPhone moms use their phones for 'shopping related activities.' The majority of these activities consist of locating stores (60%). Thirty-nine percent also use the phone to compare prices. Nineteen percent of iPhone moms download coupons, 23% look for items on sale and 37% use their phones to learn about products.

When it comes to using the phone in stores, 42% of the mothers who responded to the Greystripe survey said that they regularly use their phones at the grocery store. Grocery list applications - or just the Notes app on the iPhone and iPod touch - are the most popular uses for the iPhone and 19% of all moms use these. Thirteen percent of moms also use the phone to look up prices in the store itself - which explains the popularity of apps like Red Laser.

As Greystripe's founder and CEO Michael Chang told us last week, this data shows how the iPhone has become a tool for everyday life for this demographic. This group tends to have a large influence over everyday purchase decisions in their families and these iPhone moms often use their phones to make a good number of these decisions, which make them an attractive target for marketers.

This study also shows that there is a large market for apps that are specifically geared towards this demographic, including mobile price comparison apps or apps that can deliver mobile coupons - and a lot of iPhone dads will probably be interested in these apps as well.




[readwriteweb]