Smartphones have become more popular than ever, with one-third of Britons now owning an iPhone, a Blackberry or another similar model.

Furthermore, increasing amounts of people are using them to access Twitter and Facebook – spending 43 million hours alone on the latter in December 2010.

The findings were published in a report from Ofcom, which detailed the communications habits of 2,481 adults throughout the nation. Of these, 52 per cent of males confirmed they had a smartphone and 42 per cent of women said the same.

However it seems to be teenagers who are most welded to their precious devices, as worryingly, two in three said they felt “highly addicted” to their handset – using it in social situations, such as at a play, when they recognise they shouldn’t.

Although the addictive side may be something to keep an eye on, the news may be positive for the mobile marketing industry. What’s more, it may give campaigns utilising social media marketing services a boost, as smartphones provide yet another platform on which to display social media content.

A spokesperson for Ofcom, research director James Thickett, told Thedrum.co.uk that the results clearly demonstrate how Britain’s values are changing.

He also revealed our behaviour is adapting to meet new technology, stating: “Ofcom’s 2011 Communications Market Report shows the influence that communications technology now has on our daily lives and on the way we behave and communicate with each other.”