Marketing research and insights news and information. This issue's keywords: smartphones; takeout containers; landline households; customer service; AM/FM radio

Smartphone ownership has now reached 75 percent of the U.S. population age 13 and older, according to Reston, Va., research company comScore, an increase from 62 percent a year ago. A third of the owners plan to increase the number of apps downloaded and 30 percent expect their mobile use to increase. The percentage of people with no mobile device of any kind is so low that it barely registers on the comScore radar, says Andrew Lipsman, comScore vice president of marketing and insights.

Fewer than 1 in 15 consumers are satisfied with food takeout containers, and restaurants providing oil- and grease-resistant containers will gain customer satisfaction and loyalty, says a study by MeadWestvaco Corporation, a Richmond, Va., packaging specialist and Pennsylvania State University. They surveyed 250 consumers and found 67 percent had their clothes or car stained by greasy takeout containers. A third of those affected said the experience kept them from returning to the restaurant. The Packaging Matters study is available at mwv.com.

The percentage of U.S. adults in households with cell phones but no landline telephone has risen to 44 percent, an increase of 70 percent from the fall 2010 figure of 26 percent, says New York researcher GfK MRI in its Survey of the American Consumer. But the results vary according to the age of the respondents, with two-thirds of Millennials being without landlines, 45 percent for Generation X adults (born 1965 to 1976) and 32 percent for Baby Boomers (born 1946 to 1965). Only 13 percent of Pre-Boomers in the study did not have landlines.

Consumers prefer to solve product and service issues on their own rather than consulting a customer service representative, with almost of third of survey respondents saying they “would rather clean a toilet than talk to customer service,” according to a report by Toronto-based Conversion Research for Aspect Software, Chelmsford, Mass. Three-fourths of the respondents view the quality of customer service as a “true test” of how much a brand values them and 65 percent say they feel positive about a company when they are able to solve a problem by text or other digital channels. Over half of the Millennials in the study said they had moved their business from a company due to poor customer service in the past year. The February 2015 study included 1050 Americans aged 18 to 65.

Traditional entertainment trumps new technology in U.S. automobiles as Americans continue to prefer AM/FM radio to CDs or streaming services, according to a study by Ipsos MediaCT, New York. “The in-car environment is unlike any other when it comes to media behavior,” says Thomas Spinelli, Vice President with Ipsos MediaCT. “Our studies show that despite all the technological advances we’ve made when it comes to digital listening, the vast majority of Americans still prefer AM/FM radio overall and especially expect it to be a part of their cars – in fact, virtually all said they wouldn’t buy a car without a radio.” A main concern over streaming services is their cost, with only one-third of the small group using streaming services actually paying for them, and 80 percent of the non-payers saying they would not be willing to pay in the future. The data in the study was from an online study fielded in January 2015 of 1,036 U.S. residents ages 18 and older.

These reports were compiled from recent issues of the Daily News Queue, a free e-newsletter digest of marketing research and insights news and information delivered each business morning. Not already in the Queue? Sign up here!