Mobile users only call four people

Boffins and Boffinettes working for Swisscom Innovations, a division of Swisscom (SCM), has been contacting users and collecting details of how people use their cellphones.

They have discovered that people vary the type of communication technology depending on the person they are talking to.

Stefana Broadbent, who was in charge of the project, reckons that it is all down to intimacy. Voice calls were more public and therefore used less often. SMS was the most intimate so was used to send the more personal stuff.

SMS was used to tell people "I miss you", email to organise dinner, voice is to say "I'm late", and Instant Messaging provides the detail, Broadbent said.

More here. µ