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How You Phone Is How You Think: iPhone Users More Apt to Believe In GOP Takeover of Congress, Be Influenced by Tea Party, New Poll Find

For immediate Release:
October 3, 2010

Contact:
Erin LeHane
(415) 494-8626 x102
erin@calinnovates.org 

iPhone Users Are Influenced by Tea Party Endorsements Two Times as Much as Android or Blackberry Users

San Francisco, CA – CALinnovates, a California technology coalition, released a poll today at the annual CTIA (Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association) convention in San Francisco about what voters’ mobile phones indicate about their political opinions.

“It’s fascinating research because our mobile phones are increasingly our portal to life, whether its politics, news, our job or even our friends and family,” said Tom Galvin, Zogby/463 pollster.  “We’re seeing a sea change as we go into the mid-term elections but what we learned in this survey is that voters are choosing their mobile technology in ways that predict behavior or opinions.”

The new national Zogby/463 online survey found the following:

  • Nearly 60 percent (58.9%) of iPhone users are more likely to predict a Republican majority in Congress in this year’s mid-term elections, while nearly 44.8 percent of Blackberry and 46.5 percent of Android users are more likely to predict a Republican majority.
  • iPhone users are two times more likely to be influenced by the Tea Party than those voters who carry a Android or Blackberry phone.
  • 1 in 5 iPhone users are influenced by the Tea Party.
  • iPhone users were twice as likely to say that Sarah Palin speaks for them than Android and Blackberry users.
  • Around 10 percent of likely voters evenly across mobile platforms say that Glenn Beck speaks for them.

Innovation was found to be important to voters and a strong majority support maintaining the Internet without additional regulation. Specifically, the poll found:

  • iPhone users are twice as likely to believe that innovation incentives are a better option to stimulate the economy than funding public works projects.
  • All likely voters are three times more likely to support a hands off approach to the Internet and supportive of not adding regulations. Of those voters, nearly 70 percent of iPhone and Android users and 50 percent of Blackberry users support keeping the Internet free of additional regulation.

In addition, other findings include:

  • Nearly 70 percent of Blackberry users feel confident about the country’s future over the next decade and nearly 90 percent of Blackberry users feel confident about their personal future.
  • Less than 50 percent of iPhone users feel confident about the country’s future over the next decade while 78 percent of iPhone users feel confident about their personal future.
  • Likely voters who do not own a mobile phone report the lowest levels of confidence of any group tested with less than 30 percent have any confidence of the future of the country over the next decade and 55 percent have confidence in their own personal future.

“The results tell us a lot about mobile phone users and political trends,” said Erin Lehane, CALinnovates Executive Director.  “Now the next time you are on a plane waiting to take-off, you can just look at your neighbor sitting next to you tweeting on his iPhone and know that he is more likely to be adding applications to track where the nearest Tea Party rally is than your neighbor to the left of you typing away on his Blackberry.”

The poll, a national Zogby online surveyed 2,077 likely voters with a margin of error of 2.2%. It was conducted October 1 through October 4, 2010.

For more information on CALinnovates please go to www.calinnovates.org; http://www.facebook.com/#!/CALinnovates and http://twitter.com/CALinnovates.

CALinnovates is a statewide coalition focused on championing the conversation about the future of California’s critical technology sector. CALinnovates brings together industry experts, thought leaders, tech innovators, policy makers and consumers in a nonpartisan mission to promote innovation, create new jobs, spur investment and support tech-friendly policies.

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Previous Press Releases

New Statewide Poll Shows Voters Believe Technology Industry is at Core of California’s Recovery

For Immediate Release:
February 3, 2010

Contact:
Lane Kasselman
(415) 425-7763

Research shows voters want policymakers to focus on Expanding on technology and innovation

San Francisco, CA – CALinnovates, a new statewide technology coalition, launched today and released new statewide polling results that measured voter attitudes towards technology.

Tulchin Research conducted the survey and found that, while voters expressed historic high pessimism toward the direction of California, voters had tremendous optimism and pride in California’s role as a leader in technology and innovation. Californians believe this important sector of the economy presents a potential solution to the state’s economic and fiscal challenges.

Specifically the survey found:

  • 80% believe that California is on the wrong track.
  • 79% are proud of California’s history of being a leader in innovation; 89% in Silicon Valley.
  • 66% believe that policymakers should focus on finding ways to boost the tech sector in California to help the economy.
  • 65% believe California is the nation’s leader in technology and innovation.
  • 96% believe technology and innovation are an important part of California’s economy.
  • By a 52% to 27% margin, voters believe that state policymakers are not making technology and innovation enough of a priority.
  • 42% believe that there are too many government regulations of technology companies in California against 15% who believe there are too few and 19% who believe there is the right amount.

“Remarkably, during this time of historic high voter dissatisfaction, Californian’s are able to express unmistakable optimism in our State’s tech sector. This optimism is extremely rare in these times when all we generally are hearing from voters is doom and gloom” said pollster Ben Tulchin who also noted that these feeling are consistently held, regardless of age, political party or region.

In response to the survey results, CALinnovates Advisory Board Member Barbara O’Connor of Sacramento State University said, “The survey results confirm what we suspected: Californians don’t think their elected officials are paying enough attention to the tech sector and are dependent on groups like CALinnovates to make technology policy a pre-eminent issue for discussion.”

Echoing Ms. O’Connor’s sentiments, Howard Stevenson, CALinnovates Advisory Board Member, Senior Associate Dean at Harvard Business School and Chairman of National Public Radio stated, “As a country, we are looking to California to lead, as it has in the past, in the creation of innovative technologies that result in new economy jobs.”

CALinnovates membership was encouraged by the results.

“There are thousands of innovators around the state working in both billion dollar businesses and out of their garages. Venture money is tight and employment costs are high, but we are choosing to do business in California. It’s nice to know that the people of California support our efforts,” said Mike Glickenhaus, CEO of VMIX headquartered in San Diego.

“Innovation begins in California, that’s why we’re here. There are thousands of innovators around the state working in both billion-dollar businesses and out of their garages,” said Steve Hoffmann, President of NRG West in Orange County.

“Despite the current economic challenges, California continues to be the epicenter of innovation and creativity. As we were looking to expand our company it was a natural choice for our new office location,” said Chris Rogers, Managing Director at Universal Mind, Inc. in San Francisco.

CALinnovates launch included the release of the survey, a formal announcement at SF New Tech Wednesday evening to the cheers of hundreds of small tech companies and the release of an iPhone app. Additional information about the coalition or the survey results can be found at CALinnovates.

Survey methodology: 600 voters statewide by telephone, conducted January 20-25, 2010, margin of error +/- 3.9%, included both landline and cell phones.

To view the survey memo and launch press release, please visit:
https://calinnovates.org/issues/surveys.

CALinnovates is a new technology organization that seeks to champion the conversation about the future of California’s critical technology sector. Bringing together industry experts, thought leaders, tech innovators, policymakers and consumers, CALinnovates’s non-partisan mission is to promote innovation, increase access to technology, create new jobs, spur investment and support tech-friendly policies.

Download this Press Release as a PDF