Globeandmail.com: Signals your cellphone sends. Ringtones.

Market researchers, handset makers, retailers and alert operators have protracted tried to guess which groups will be drawn to a particular phone or application. When selecting the phones it will carry, Verizon Wireless crafts profiles of proper buyers, irresistible into account people’s age, gender, lifestyle and comfort level with technology, says Marketing Manager Karen Taylor. Verizon also measures each phone’s style and occupation quotient—the two factors that drive most phone purchases, says Taylor. Some patterns emerge.

At Verizon, trend hounds are likely to pick the Samsung Glyde or the LG Venus, two trim slide phones with sophisticated touch screens. “They’re remodelled and different and offer a little bit of self-expression,” says Taylor. Motorola’s Razr, though it has confounded its lustre since its 2004 release, is also a kind of fashion phone, because it comes in a multitude of colors and can be comfortably customized.

BlackBerrys and other smart phones rule the functional side of the spectrum. Their productivity applications sue to people searching for technological ways to organize and control their busy lives. (Smart phones also invite me-too buyers who want to be perceived as the kinds of busy executives who typically use the devices.) Verizon’s GzOne, a indomitable flip phone from UTStarcom, offers another kind of functionality: It’s built to endure water, dust and shock.

If you own one, you’re sending the significant that you’re an outdoorsy, athletic type. Have an LG Voyager? The phone’s husky screen, full keyboard and high cost point to early adopters with greedy appetites for online surfing, texting and video watching. Though nearly a year has passed since the press of the iPhone, the handset still confers a cool, members-only type of status upon its owners, experts say. Brand and chic are only part of the pie.

The way you use your phone is an equally critical part of who you are and how you define yourself. InsightExpress, a Stamford, Conn.-based research firm, organizes phone owners into three groups based on operation trends: mobile pioneers, wannabes and traditionalists.

Pioneers up full use of the advanced features on their phones, ranging from e-mail to video to downloaded content. Most of them have sent a focus message to someone sitting in the same room and e-mailed photos of products from their phones while shopping to evoke feedback from family and friends. Many do tasks on their phones that most populate do on their computers (or not at all), such as updating their Facebook page remotely or blogging via ambulant social software, like Twitter. Pioneers are about six times more likely to own a stinging phone such as a BlackBerry, an Apple iPhone or a Palm Treo than wannabes.

Still more significant is how pioneers use their phones. They tend to take advantage of every feature a phone can offer, says Joy Liuzzo, superintendent of mobile research at InsightExpress. “Pioneers’ phones are very ingrained in their lives,” Liuzzo says. Wannabes are dabblers—enthusiastic about features take to the mobile Web or entering mobile-based contests, but not regular/weekly users.

Says Liuzzo, “Pioneers set custom trends; wannabes popularize them.” Those who want to ingenuously talk on their phones—and, occasionally, text—are traditionalists. These no-frills users constituted about 60 per cent of the respondents. Wannabes were another quarter.

Only a colourful 15 per cent are pioneers. Demographics status each group. Most pioneers are between 18 and 35, and many are one men.

Most wannabes, by contrast, are over 35. Two-thirds of traditionalists are over 35. That doesn’t foreshadow older people don’t appreciate snazzy phones or applications.

Teens often convince their parents to adopt techie habits, such as texting or mobile social networking. Cellphone accessories volunteer more clues about their owners. A bright-hued, protective silicon happening telegraphs a responsible user with a streak of playfulness.

A photo-printed adhesive skin might suggest an artistic bent. Wallpaper images amount the gamut from personal photos to motivational phrases. Charms of sports group pennants, cartoon characters or religious icons also let everyone else know a cellphone user’s most cherished allegiances.

Ringtones and ringback tunes (for arriving calls) bawl out more characteristics. Do your callers hear Koji Kondo’s “Super Mario Brothers Theme” or Henry Mancini’s current Pink Panther ditty? Both of those songs have been near the very top of Billboard’s meridian 10 ringtones for more than three years, so you’re joining a pretty big circle of fans. And just remember, your phone will chitter out that message, dozens of times a day.

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