12 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Your Cell Phone

It's your most intimate companion, but what do you really know about it?

1. Your smartphone is more powerful than the computers used on the Apollo 11 mission.

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Those computers were comparable in power to pocket calculators, and yet they somehow allowed astronauts to travel 393,309 km to the moon (AND back!).

2. There is 10 times more bacteria on your smartphone than a toilet seat.

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Cringe. In fact, mobile phones and their owners have the same bacterial "fingerprint." Our smartphone screens contain over 80% of the common bacteria that make up our personal bacterial "fingerprints."

3. Nomophobia, short for “no-mobile-phone phobia,” is a serious epidemic.

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Sixty-six percent of all adults in the U.S. suffer from “nomophobia," a fear of being without your mobile phone or without reception.

4. The average person checks his or her phone 221 times a day.

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And we spend three hours and sixteen minutes per day on our phone, making it almost a 24-hour day every week spent texting, calling, and swiping.

5. Sixty-five percent of people sleep with or next to their smartphone.

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And over 50% never turn their phone off.

6. One-third of plane passengers leave their phone on while flying.

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And, although there are no records of electromagnetic interference from portable electronic devices contributing to a plane accident, there's still a high risk of danger; cell phones can interfere with communication, navigation, and warning systems and create distractions for pilots during critical times of the flight.

7. The first handheld cell phone was purchased for $3,995.

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It was called the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X, and it was sold on March 13, 1984. Its dimensions were 13 x 1.75 x 3.5 inches, and it weighed 28 ounces. The battery life was only 30 minutes.

8. The cell phone got its name from the areas served by towers.

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These areas were divided into “cells.” The word "cellular" was first used in this context in 1977.

9. Ninety percent of text messages are read within three minutes of delivery.

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So, yeah, your date probably just isn't replying because they don't feel like it.

10. China has the most active cell phones in the world at 1.2 billion.

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Next up is India with 904 million phones. Then comes the U.S. with 327 million phones. The highest number of active phones per person is Montenegro at almost two phones per person.

11. More people own mobile phones in the world than toothbrushes.

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4.8 billion people have a mobile phone. Only 4.2 billion have a toothbrush. No current stats on turtles.

12. Revenue from cell phone sales in the U.S. is projected to be over $50 billion this year.

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And this number is growing rapidly. It's more than doubled in three years. In 2010, this figure was only 18 billion.

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