According to a recent survey conducted in the US, about 52.5 per cent

Question

According to a recent survey conducted in the US, about 52.5 per cent of Americans are now owners of at least some type of a mobile phone device. Interestingly, the same survey also found that 66 per cent of Asian community in the US owns smart phones, making Asians the leading users of such devices in the country.

Which of the following conclusions can most properly be drawn from the information above?

(A) More Asians own mobile phones than Americans

(B) The Asian community owns the maximum number of mobile phones in the US

(C) Almost half the population of the US does not own smart phones

(D) Feature phones sell more in the US than do smart phones

(E) The Asian community in the US is very well off which is why they can afford the more expensive smart phones

This question is a part of QOTD Question Collection

deep14 · Answer

C. 52.5% population owns some kind of a phone. Therefore 47.5% does not own a phone. Now 66% is the maximum fraction of a community that owns a smart phone. Therefore % of smartphone owners should not be greater than 66% of 52.5. In other words at least 34% of 52.5 owns a non smart phone. So total non smart phone owning population is 47.5+34%*52.5. C seems to be the closest

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Animatzer · Answer

I believe option B is correct and i cant seem to understand y option C is correct

MadaraU · Answer

I don't think C is correct
Stem1 : 52.5 per cent of Americans are now owners of at least some type of a mobile phone device (which can be anything flip phones, old black n white phones, smart phones etc.)
We don't know what's the percentage of smart phones in total number of mobile devices.
Stem 2 : 66 per cent of Asian community in the US owns smart phones

Let's only 25% of total population which owns cell phones own smartphones, which means only 13.125% own smartphones.

Any positive criticism will be appreciated.

rishabhdxt · Answer

C is correct.

52.5% have some mobile device. so, 47.5% do not have any type of mobile phones ( or smart phones)

hope it makes sense

TaN1213 · Answer

Hello Experts,
Are we assuming here that US population comprises only of Americans and Asians, and no other community?
Even in that case, how do we arrive to the conclusion stated in "C" when we don't know the distribution(percentage) of Americans and Asians in the entire population?
To further clear my point,
if total population = 100 and Americans = x (would imply Asians = 100-x), 
statements in the premise say 52.5% of Americans i.e of (x) are now owners of ..... and 66% of Asians i.e of (100-x)... owns smart phones. 
Then without knowing x(i.e Americans),how do we conclude the mentioned?
Please assist.
Thank you

nightblade354 · Answer

This question is so non-GMAT-like that I had to comment on it. The question, unlike the real GMAT, forces you to make assumptions about populations. On the GMAT, you will not be forced to assume a population; it will be given. This question is rife with error and it is my strong recommendation that no one waste their time on it.

According to a recent survey conducted in the US, about 52.5 per cent of Americans are now owners of at least some type of a mobile phone device. Interestingly, the same survey also found that 66 per cent of Asian community in the US owns smart phones, making Asians the leading users of such devices in the country.

Which of the following conclusions can most properly be drawn from the information above?

(A) More Asians own mobile phones than Americans

(B) The Asian community owns the maximum number of mobile phones in the US

(C) Almost half the population of the US does not own smart phones

(D) Feature phones sell more in the US than do smart phones

(E) The Asian community in the US is very well off which is why they can afford the more expensive smart phones

This question is a part of QOTD Question Collection

chesstitans · Answer

sorry, cancass, I have to tell you that this question has poor quality, and you need to remove this question from your collection.

To test takers, this question needs to be modified, edited, or changed before it becomes a gmat-like question.

DmitryFarber · Answer

We actually don't need to assume anything about ethnic groups to get this one right. All we need to do is ignore the second sentence! If just a bit over half the population has a mobile device, then nearly half don't. Since smart phones are mobile devices, then these people don't have smart phones. However, I agree that the problem could be worded better. The stimulus actually leaves open the possibility that more than half of Americans don't have smart phones, since presumably some of the 52.5% have mobile devices that are not smart phones, but C seems to imply that the number without phones is under 50%.

I also notice that this is the second problem I've seen tonight that might lead us to question whether some people are Americans. Is A implying that Asian-Americans are not Americans? I'm sure that's not the intent, but I think it goes without saying that the GMAT would not lead us into such waters.

I also notice that this is the second problem I've seen tonight that might lead us to question whether some people are Americans. Is A implying that Asian-Americans are not Americans? I'm sure that's not the intent, but I think it goes without saying that the GMAT would not lead us into such waters.

AkshdeepS · Answer

Which of the following conclusions can most properly be drawn from the information above?

(A)  More Asians  own mobile phones  than Americans   No info

(B) The  Asian community owns the maximum  number of mobile phones in the US  No info

( C) Almost half the population of the US does not own smart phones

(D) Feature phones  sell more in the US  than do smart phones  Out of scope
 
(E) The Asian community in the US is very well off which is why they can afford  the more expensive smart phones   Out of scope

Only (C) makes sense. All the other choices are inferior to (C)

Nightmare007 · Answer

Hi  abhimahna  ,  GMATNinja

so 45 to 55 can be considered as Almost half ? Can you please confirm, Since till now i thought 49-51 is considered almost half. Moreover, Can you please tell me what will be buffer to consider almost half / almost quarter in GMAT.

Thank you

abhimahna · Answer

Hey  Nightmare007  ,

Value near to 50 can be considered "Almost Half" as a part of approximation. Similarly, any value near to 25 can be considered almost quarter.

Bangravi2711 · Answer

WOULD REQUEST EVERYONE TO HAVE A LOOK IN MY EXPLAINATION.
Lets assume there are 2000 people live in USA and there are three communities in USA:-
1. Americans:- 600
2. Asians:- 700
3. Others:- 700 
The following values are on the estimates as there are no official distribution of the population into various comminities mentioned.
And according to the given percentage, Asian will have 462 phones , Americans will have 312 phones(and the condition gets satisfied that the asians have more users and owners of the phone than the americans)
And as the data of the ownership of the phone of people belonging to other communites is not mentioned , I will take them to be 70.
So here the total gets to be 844. Which is not the half of the entire population of USA (as we have assumed there are 3 communties and accordingly allocated the no. of users of the phones as per mentioned (&provided) statistics. )
Here Option C gets wrong

Bunuel · Answer

Official Explanation

Answer: C

Note that the stimulus mentions two different terms—mobile phones and smart phones. The options will most likely try to confuse between the two.

(A) The evidence is only for Asians living in the US. From this, we cannot make any conclusions about Asians in general.

(B) We know that the Asian community owns the maximum number of smart phones in the US, but we cannot necessarily conclude this for mobile phones in general.

(C) While you may dismiss this as another one of those trick options, this is in fact  the correct answer.  According to the argument, 52.5 % of Americans own mobile phones, so then 47.5 % of Americans do not own mobile phones. Smart phones are also mobile phones, so then it is correct to conclude that almost half the US population does not own smart phones.

(D) Since we don’t have the actual number of either of these given to us, we cannot conclude this

(E) This option explains why the Asian community can afford smart phones but is not an inference that can be made from the argument.

VerbalBot · Answer

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