Thirty-six percent of American consumers use their mobile phones as entertainment devices, says a new survey from Deloitte & Touche, up from 24 percent eight months ago. Unsurprisingly, usage skews young: 62 percent of those between ages 13 and 24 use their phones for entertainment, and just under half of those aged 25 to 41. Twenty percent of respondents also say they watch video on their handsets daily or almost daily.

The results raise a couple of questions. First, what caused the dramatic increase in the number of people using their phone for entertainment content over the past eight months? Handset upgrade cycles likely played some role, while growing awareness of the multimedia content on offer and the media functionality of handsets contributed as well. The second question is if a fifth of US mobile subscribers really are viewing mobile video on a regular basis, who’s making money from it? That figure seems suspiciously high, though the previous installment of the survey was conducted online, cutting out anybody without internet access, and presumably inflating the overall usage figures somewhat.