The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Few use all features in mobile phones

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 09, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Few use all features in mobile phones

Staff Reporter

Survey covered 6,800 users in 15 countries, including India

BANGALORE: If you are not using your mobile phone to send enough multi media messaging (MMS) services, don't feel guilty because you have company from mobile users across the world. Poor usability of value-added services is one of the findings of the SmartTrust's Mobile Trends Guide 2005-06.

Of course, the survey found the reasons for lower usage of value-added services. Poor handset configuration was one of the big factors. The survey of 6,800 users across 15 countries, including India, China, the U.K., Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Russia, the U.S., Brazil, India, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand, found that only 43 per cent of the MMS-enabled handsets were used to send an MMS.

Consumers, according to the survey, were struggling to keep pace with the rapid deployment of new handset features and data services, as well as complex pricing structures and poor usability.

The survey was conducted for mobile device management company SmartTrust by market research company TNS.

Here is what the guide's author, Tim De Luca-Smith has to say about the survey: "Fifteen per cent of the users have had problems when trying to use their operator's MMS service. In a large number of cases, the service did not work because of poor handset configuration and network settings. There is a need to make such services more intuitive and remove consumer concerns over reliability and pricing. We live in a plug and play society and today's mobile users expect services to work first time, every time."

There is a silver lining, though. Seventy-two per cent of all consumers reporting problems while using MMS stated that they will use the service more if the technical problems are overcome. The survey showed that data use was still limited outside SMS, with it remaining the number one data service.

Across Europe and most of Asia, the number of subscribers using SMS at least once a week was over 80 per cent as against the global average of 72 per cent.

Use of the service was low only in the U.S., with just 15 per cent consumers with compatible handsets admitting to using the service.

The reach of cheap ADSL connections was blamed for lower than average use of all data services in the region.

Mobile music had captured the attention of consumers, more than mobile games, which in two years, attracted significant interest and investment across the industry.

Following the success of portable music devices and services on fixed Internet, there was an overwhelming desire among consumers to use their handsets to download and listen to music tracks.

In India and China, games were considered a more attractive mobile service than music.

Across Europe, 40 per cent of mobile users expressed an interest in using mobile music services more. In Asia, the figure was 38 per cent, but dropped to 20 per cent in the U.S.

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