No talking please, we're on a plane

Who really wants to be able to use mobile phones on planes? It seems not as many of us as the airlines might be hoping, according to a new survey commissioned by Yahoo. The research found that nearly three out of four people questioned wanted in-air mobile phone use restricted to silent features like SMS.

While Yahoo is somewhat optimistically portraying this as a sign that the average Joe can’t be bear to be parted from mobile IM and the mobile web, it actually looks like people are still after using the old favourites: 38 percent of those surveyed want in-flight SMS and 28 percent wouldn’t mind mid-air mobile email.

The survey also says that the ability to play games while in flight would be a hit with 29 percent of consumers, which sort of suggests that consumers may not even want connectivity, just the ability to be able to turn on their phone and use the features, especially after a recent flight where I was told that I couldn’t look at my phone at all, flight mode or no flight mode. If mobile connectivity on planes means I can look at the clock, calendar, calculator, whatever, on my phone whether I use the network or not, I’m all for it.