Lookout lost mobile device survey just doesn’t add up - Julian's thoughts

Mobile security company Lookout recently published a survey that claims US citizens lost $30 billion worth of mobile devices in 2011. The Lookout survey makes it very clear that on average every US citizen loses a mobile device once a year. Really? Now, come on Lookout, this survey seems to be about creating media hype (and I’m contributing to it by writing about it I know) and publishing all sorts of ‘inflated’ and ‘twisted’ stats. The ‘inflated’ has to be the valuation of $30 billion (are there not 350m US citizens? – you can do the maths here) and the ‘twisted’ relates to the fact that Lookout will have no idea just how many mobiles devices are actually recovered let alone unrecovered. This is the job of research companies, which is why at second glance, the survey reads as media hype, which it is. Read more...