Mobile phones are becoming an ever increasing part of our everyday lives. This trend is the same across most developed countries around the world and, to be honest, we don't really need confirmation of this in numbers. We just have to look around us, and it won't be too hard to tell.

However an interesting statistic coming from the U.S. is showing us that the mobile phone is not only here to stay, but is probably well on its way to replacing the landline. According to the article from Reuters:

In the first half of 2008, 17.5 percent of households were wireless only, up from 13.6 percent a full year earlier, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The statistics have a margin of error of plus or minus 0.9 percentage point, according to the agency, which collected the data as part of project to determine if national health polls were being skewed by the trend.

...

The figures come from national in-person interviews of approximately 30,000 households per year with at least one adult or child.

The agency concluded that polls were indeed being skewed because they have in the past only called those with traditional landlines. They and other organizations are moving toward incorporating wireless customers into their surveys.

With the economic crunch now well in effect, people are looking for more ways to reduce living costs, in order to cope with rising household expenses and non-rising salaries. The mobile is already a convergent device that brings together many different functionalities, and it makes sense that pretty soon it will replace the phone in the home, as it already contains most of the required functionality.