Earlier this month when the iPhone 5 was released, the Pew Internet & American Life Project reported that 45% of American adults own smartphones. They are particularly popular with young adults and those living in relatively higher income households.

More American adults own smartphones than own feature cell phones — that is, the phones that can be used as a phone and for texting, but do not have a smartphone operating system such as Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android.

• Some 34% of adults have a feature phone
• 5% of adults say they do not know if they have a smartphone or not
• 15% of American adults have no cell phone at all

These latest figures show that smartphone ownership has increased from 35% in May of 2011 to 45%,  though there has been no change in smartphone ownership from figures that the Pew Internet Project found in a survey at the beginning of the year.