Motherhood Makes Women Want Smartphones

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It’s no news flash that motherhood is a life-changing event for women. What is news, though, is the role that motherhood plays in instigating mobile phone usage, new research on digital behavior shows.

More than half (53 percent) of moms actually purchased a smartphone as a result of becoming a mom, Michael Fogarty, publisher of BabyCenter, an online resource for expectant and new parents around the world, told eMarketer.

Moms are using mobile phones in different ways from other women because motherhood instigates mobile usage, he said. Increasingly, moms are using mobile to manage their lives; moms are 18 percent more likely to have a smartphone than the general population.

Motherhood changes how women use their mobile phones, Fogarty said. Before becoming a mother, the three most important features were contacts and address book, text messaging and email. After becoming a mom, the top three features become the camera, the video camera and apps.

Becoming a mom also changes things that marketers should pay attention to. More than half (62 percent) of moms change the brands they buy when they become moms and 73 percent change their purchase criteria for apparel and beauty products. In terms of purchasing criteria, Fogarty said, anything that has to do with mothers personally goes down, and anything that has to do with price and convenience goes up.

Mothers also use their mobile phone differently than they use their desktop computer, he said. Marketers need to make sure that mobile is an integral part of the cross-platform mix. Reaching mothers at the right time and place requires mobile. If you're not there, you're missing them.

This story was provided by BusinessNewsDaily, a sister site to LiveScience.