ATLANTA – In the past 30 days, 77 percent of online Americans made a local telephone call using their cell phones and 47 percent made a long-distance telephone call. Another 9 percent made an international telephone call using their cell phones. But people are using their cell phones for much more than just calling.

While this may be common knowledge to the tech community, which has been using smartphones for many purposes for some time, cell phone usage has expanded far beyond voice communications for the general public as well, the survey shows.

In the past 30 days:

• 65 percent of respondents sent a text message.
• 60 percent of respondents took a photo.
• 38 percent of respondents visited a website on the Internet.
• 36 percent of respondents sent an email.
• 29 percent of respondents posted onto Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.

“Our cell phones have become critical productivity and entertainment tools. Today, making phone calls is almost mundane. Indeed, only 6 percent of the online Americans in our survey reported not having a cell phone,” said Polaris president Jan Carlson.

Polaris conducted online surveys with a representative sample of 1,000 American consumers during the week of July 18, 2011.

Founded by Jan Carlson, Polaris Marketing Research is a full-service firm that provides state-of-the-art online interactive marketing research reporting, interviewing and data collection, quantitative and qualitative research expertise and personalized project management.

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Tags: Atlanta, cell phone use survey, cell phones used for more than calling, Polaris Marketing Research