The latest technology is what a teen really wants
7 Jul 2008, 1650 Hrs

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Sydney, July 7 (ANI): Marketing experts and company executives these days believe that technology has started to define the lifestyles of teenagers.

This fact came to the fore when the 'What Teens Want' conference was held in Manhattan last month.

Those participating in the conference discussed how a tech-savvy and globally connected generation is remaking the image of the typical consumer.

"Technology is starting to define what's cool in a way that fashion used to define what's cool," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Tina Wells, chief executive of Buzz Marketing Group, as saying.

For teens, "as long as it's technology, it's what's hot".

Technology also has turned advertising upside-down, with companies scrambling to adapt to internet video, digital video recorders, mobile media devices, and online social networking.

Jeremy Wright, global director of mobile brand strategy with the European handset maker Nokia, feels that it's a fast-moving, tech-heavy world that teens take for granted.

He said: "They're just so receptive to new technology in ways that we find hard to understand. They're the early explorers in mobile (technology)."

Jordan Berman, executive director of media innovation for ATand T Mobility, the wireless division of the San Antonio, Texas communications giant, said: "Teens have adopted text messaging as a second language."

Over time, people have stopped to call tech-savvy children kids "nerds" and "geeks", say marketing executives.

"As times have changed, (the techies) are really cool kids. They're the ones that know about an iPhone 18 months (before it arrives) and they teach a preppie how to use it," said Wells, who studies trends with a global network of about 9000 young people dubbed "BuzzSpotters".

She even referred to an unfinished online survey that had to date included about 680 US participants, and said that 65 per cent of American teenagers had plans to purchase one or two tech items this northern summer before heading back to school.

According to Wells, more than half say they will buy tech items when they can afford them, and only one in 10 is happy with the tech gadgets he or she has. (ANI)