Consumers of all ages and family situations continue to incorporate technology more deeply into their daily lives, according to Forrester Research. But what role does mobile play?

According to Forrester?s ?State of Consumers and Technology: Benchmark 2009,? consumers place much more importance on mobile phone service than on home phones and they express this priority with their wallets.

Through the past 11 years of large-scale benchmark surveys, we?ve observed digital technology taking an increasing role in consumers? lives,? The Forrester report says. ?Today, technologies like PCs and mobile phones, which were once reserved for the most well-heeled tech freaks, are in three-quarters of U.S. households.?

Forrester?s State of Consumers and Technology: Benchmark 2009 is a graphical analysis of the U.S. consumer market based on Forrester?s ?North American Technographics Benchmark Survey, 2009.? It forecasts device and service adoption, and it provides an overview of U.S. consumers? demographics, behaviors, and technology attitudes based on a mail survey of 47,946 respondents.

Average household spending on mobile phones far outstrips the monthly allocation for a home phone, Internet, or paid television.

Broadband penetration is highest among younger singles and couples ? and the service is most likely to come from their cable provider ? while this group is the least likely to have a home telephone line.

Home networks, 78 percent of which use wireless, have made their way into one-third of U.S. households, and nearly half of households with a fiber broadband pipe.

More than five in six households have a mobile phone, led by young families at 93 percent.

But older families have the greatest density of active mobile phones per household: 57 percent have at least three.

Continued consolidation in the market, in particular Verizon Wireless? acquisition of Alltel, places 82 percent of subscribers with the top four providers.

With an overall market share of 2 percent, Apple is a very small player in the market; however, among the 15 percent who regularly access the Internet on their phone, its share is five times higher.

Young singles and couples, those younger than 40 whose sole responsibility is themselves or their partners, represent nearly 19 million U.S. households and 49 million adults, of which 87 percent are online.

These consumers live a large part of their lives online. The time they spend online, both for personal and work purposes, exceeds that of any other group.

?They are also more likely to go online in places other than home or work, and they tend to carry the
Internet with them, whether via a wireless home network or out and about.,? the report says. ?For example, young singles and couples are 55 percent more likely than the average U.S. adult to access the Web on their phone."