Sifting through various wireless-related news this morning, I came across a report from In-Stat dated Oct. 11 (I must have lost track of it among all the IT EXPO related news) in which the research firm discusses a recent survey it conducted that found users of 3G mobile phones are more interested in navigation applications than watching video.
In-Stat notes that the results of its survey are a surprise, since video has been touted for some time now as being the “killer application” for next-gen mobile services.
If the survey’s 1,000+ respondents do indeed represent reality, it means carriers and vendors have some quick legwork to perform—notably, In-Stat says, by expanding the availability of GPS and A-GPS-compatible handsets.
“Unfortunately, technology choices left over from the 1990s make this difficult but carriers and handset vendors are starting to provide an increasing flow of products that better meet the 3G customers’ needs,” In-Stat analyst David Chamberlain is quoted as saying in the report.
In a Chicago Tribune article about In-Stat’s survey, reporter Jon Van characterizes the respondents as “early adopters and business users of mobile phones on the market.” Van quoted Chamberlain as saying that only 15 percent of respondents were interested in mobile video, while 53 percent were interested in navigational applications.
I am curious about the “early adopters” classification. Somehow I would have expected that such users would be more interested in the “cool” or “fun” aspects of new technology, rather than their practical applications. After all, any new technology has kinks to work out at first, and often that means only someone who is really “into” technology for its own sake is willing to put up with the glitches.
Then again, maybe navigational applications are fun and cool, too.
“People like the idea of getting directions from their phone to take them to their destination," Chamberlain is quoted as saying in the Tribune article. “They like getting suggestions about restaurants nearby and how to find them.”
I admit that I haven’t yet used such an application on a mobile phone, although I do MapQuest destinations all the time so I can see how being able to access directions and related info while on the go would be useful—and fun, too.
What do you think?
Personally, I think that this should have been expected. 3G users are generally business users, and interested in business or holidaying. They're not really interested in gaming and watching videos. I am on of them – and I am a twenty something as well. Which means that even younger people want to see their phone help them out practically more than give them (more) entertainment – there's plenty of entertainment around. This may have been a blunder on the market research side, somewhat. A GPS is highly useful to me, and I am eagerly awaiting my new phone which will help me out with this.
I also noticed the same trend here in our place. Most high end phone users are businessmen. The reasons: (1)easy access to the Internet so no need to read the newspaper; (2)cool features that are beyond text messaging and calling; (3)allows video conferencing so no need to go to the office to attend to something; and more.