What do you wake up to? An old-fashioned alarm clock with small hammer and large bells atop a round clockface? Maybe a clock-radio or perhaps a straightforward digital alarm with a loud beep-beep-beep to get you moving of a morning? If you do, then you are in the minority as more and more of us apparently wake up to our mobile phones.

According to one new survey which questioned 1500 people regarding their morning bedroom routine, more than half used their mobile phones as alarm clocks.

One leading horologist and fellow of the British Horological Institute told the Daily Mail newspaper that the trend has already been seen with people using mobiles instead of wristwatches, and how it signals modern technology replacing mechanical things.

So what else is the mobile phone replacing? Well the same survey, unsurprisingly conducted for a mobile phone retailer, suggests that 20% of us use them to access the Internet, take photos, organise business schedules and keep on top of social networking.

I have to admit that it never actually occurred to me that I had replaced my alarm clock with an iPhone, but I have. In fact I have not used a 'proper' alarm clock since I first took delivery of the iPhone, it sits on my bedside cabinet acting as a handy one-tap illuminated clock for those middle of the night stumbles to the loo, and as a very effective alarm clock in the morning. I hate to sound like one of those annoying 'have you seen what my iPhone can do' types, but it really is starting to live up to that reputation. My iPhone is my alarm clock, calendar, mobile web browser, email client, portable games machine and even satnav. I have even been known to make a telephone call with it every now and then.