New York, February 1, 2010 – The landline is fast going extinct, and with it, the telephone survey. Meanwhile, wireless technology is surging forward to fill the evolutionary gap. For proof, look no further than the latest cell phone use numbers. According to the US government’s most recent National Health Interview Survey (January-June 2009), the number of American households using wireless phones exclusively is rising at a steady rate. Nearly 40% of American homes are now either totally or mostly dependant on wireless phone technology, which is bad news for those trying to conduct surveys by traditional telephone-based methods.

The results of the comprehensive survey show that one out of every five homes (22.7%) had only wireless telephones during the first half of 2009. This marks a 2.5 percentage point increase in wireless-reliant households since the second half of 2008. Furthermore, one of every seven American homes (14.7%) reported that, while they still had a landline, they received all or nearly all calls via cell phone.

The survey shows that younger adults (aged 35-44), are more likely to live in wireless households than adults in older age categories. However, the survey also examines numbers of wireless users over the past 3 years, and notes that the percentage of wireless-only adults within each age group has increased over time.

None of this surprises Angus Reid, Marketing Hall of Legends inductee and CEO of the groundbreaking online market research company Vision Critical, who has been heralding the death knell of traditional telephone-based market research for some time now.

“The fact is that people using cell phones are unreachable by conventional telephone research techniques,” says Reid. And as a 40-year market research veteran who started collecting data face-to-face, adapted to telephone research in the ‘80s and ‘90s and evolved to become a driving force in mobile and online technology, he should know.

Reid maintains that in the future, surveys will be done on mobile devices or via virtual tours in 3-D. Vision Critical has already begun making this a reality, and has become a world leader in global online panel research, as well as one of the fastest-growing technology companies in North America.

Vision Critical has embraced the future, which, if cell phone numbers are any indication, is looking more and more like the present, by launching a platform of innovative online research panels, products and practices. Reid, clearly determined to be at the vanguard of the new research world, puts it this way: “Anyone who doubted the impending death of the telephone survey industry should take note… It’s over.”