People would rather lose their wallet than a cell phone

According to a global survey conducted by Synovate, most people can't live without their mobiles, never leave home without them and, if given a choice, would rather lose their wallet. Calling mobile phones the "remote control" for life, the survey said cell phones are so ubiquitous that by last year more humans owned one than did not. The Synovate mobile phones survey was conducted online in Canada, Denmark, France, Malaysia, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Britain and the United States.

The poll showed that three-quarters of more than 8,000 respondents take their phone with them everywhere, with Russians and Singaporeans the most attached. More than a third also said they couldn't live without their phone, topped by Taiwanese and again Singaporeans, while one in four would find it harder to replace the mobile than their purse. Some two-thirds of respondents go to bed with their phones nearby and can't switch them off, even though they want to, because they're afraid they'll miss something.

Furthermore, the survey results show that mobiles have also changed the nature of relationships, with nearly half of all respondents use SMSes to flirt, a fifth set up first-dates via text and almost the same number use the same method to end a love affair.

In addition to calling and SMS-ing, the top three features people use regularly on their mobile phones globally are the alarm clock, the camera and the games. As for email and Internet access, 17 % of respondents said they checked their inboxes or surfed the Web off their phones, lead by those in the United States and Britain. One in 10 respondents log onto social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace regularly via mobile, again led by Britain and the United States.

Steve Garton, Synovate's global head of media, says: "As the mobile becomes more and more an all-in-one device, many other businesses are facing challenging times. The opportunities for mobile manufacturers and networks however are enormous."

However, not everyone is tech savvy, with 37 % of respondents saying they don't know how to use all the functions on their phone.