According to a survey released last week, conducted by BIGresearch for the National Retail Federation (n=9,578 US adults), a majority of those 18-34 years old (51.4%) now want Internet access on their mobile phones. And 18.5% of that group is planning to buy a mobile phone in the next 90 days.

Overall "41.5% of adults want a cell phone with internet access, compared to just under one-third (32.6%) who said so in July 2008."

In tandem with Internet access, people want email access on their phones. An equivalent number (51.1%) of 18-34 year-olds said they wanted email access on their handsets compared with "28.1% in January 2006." The average who wanted email, across all age groups, was 42.6%.

Roughly 42% of US adults 18-55 said they were intending to buy a new mobile phone in the next 90 days.

If that number can be extrapolated to the larger population it would represent almost 100 million new mobile phone buyers, a near majority of whom would probably be buying smartphones for their mobile Internet capabilities. 

The penetration of smartphones in the US today is about 22-23%. Nielsen has predicted that by Q3 of 2011 smartphones will exceed feature phones in the US. The data above would support the idea of an acceleration of smartphone adoption.