Mobile phones more important than wallets

By Wojtek Dabrowski

TORONTO (Reuters) - More than one-third of workers would choose their mobile phone over their wallet, keys, laptop or digital music player if they had to leave the house for 24 hours and could take only one item, a new survey has found.

The survey, conducted by market research firm IDC and sponsored by Nortel Networks Corp (NT.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) (NT.N: Quote, Profile, Research), found that while more than 38 percent of the 2,367 people polled chose their mobile phones, less than 30 percent chose their wallets first.

Through the survey, Nortel — North America’s biggest maker of telephone gear — was looking to find out how many workers around the world can be defined as “hyperconnected,” or as those who have fully embraced multiple devices like cellphones and laptops, as well as applications like e-mail or social networking sites like Facebook.