NEWS
It seems mobile phone users aren't that interested in using many of the advanced features - such as web browsing and TV - that operators have been pushing.
The proportion of mobile users using eight out of 11 advanced services has declined in the last year, according to a survey from Continental Research which quizzed just under 1,000 people.
The percentage of users accessing the internet on their mobile phone fell from 14 per cent to 12 per cent in the last year, while six per cent fewer users were downloading ringtones.
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Other advanced features that have declined in use include mobile TV, downloading and sending video, and subscription-based text information services.
The only features to have become more popular are the sending of photo messages and downloading games, both of which rose by one per cent.
Report author James Myring said the proportion of customers using advanced services is still relatively small despite mobile networks aggressively promoting them.
He added much of the problem is that many mobile users are not interested, so operators are in many cases, "simply knocking against a locked door" when pushing the services.
A significant majority (68 per cent) of mobile users said they would prefer a more basic phone that was cheap and easy to use.
Just a quarter of users surveyed said they would pay more for a stylish handset or for the latest mobile technology.
Myring said there is a two-tier market consisting of a larger group of older users with little interest in latest mobile services and a lucrative younger minority willing to stump up for style and technology.
O2 customers are the most likely to fall into the latter group, with 37 per cent saying they would pay more for the latest mobile tech.
Comments
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1. MusicFan
Just because users are not "downloading ringtones" etc through their wap on their phones, doesnt mean they are not interested.
Perhaps users are just becoming more "tech savvy". Most new mobiles come with memory cards which can easily be read by pc's with card readers.
It doesnt take a lot of brain power to work out how to transfer your favourite mp3's to your mobile. This is a standard routine for the "ipod generation".
2. Simon Allen
I agree with MusicFan. I would not pay my mobile operator for material when I can collect it on the PC for very much less or free. I transfer files and images to my mobile for use on the move but paying money for their content is not going to happen.
Another reason is that, I suspect, some of the content they are paid a fee to host and then they get a fee from me. I might be overly suspicious but I have been involved in telecomms for 27 years!!