In this “How People Really Use Mobile” it’s disappointing that the researchers have ignored the primary thing we do with our smartphones.

I think it’s very important to appreciate that most of the time we’re using our mobiles we’re not actually even thinking about them but we are still using them because we’re “reachable”.

“Reachability” is a primary reason for the rapid adoption of the newest mass media and should be understood by everyone developing mHealth services. It was defined by Tomi Ahonen, the world’s most influential mobile industry analyst, in his book “m-Profits” (published in 2002):

“Reachability is what introduces the addiction to cellphones which we don’t have with fixed landline phones. Only those executives of our industry who understand Reachability can deliver services that will be mass market successes. Reachability explains why the Blackberry is such as “Crackberry” and why the addiction of SMS text messaging exceeds that of email, instant messaging and is on par with cigarette smoking”

If you don’t yet see reachability you’re going to have a very tough time appreciating the enormous mHealth potential of mobile connected sensors: