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Integrated digital camera, FM radio and speaker-phones continue to remain the
features that are most likely to drive up-gradation of mobile handsets this year
along with MMS, the new entrant to this list. Features like tri-band, bluetooth,
infrared port etc. have observed growing demand, but are yet to develop any mass
appeal, as per the IDC India Mobile Handset Usage Satisfaction Study 2006. These
value added handset features are yet to become mainstream for all the existing
handsets, though for a large proportion of handset users, some of these features
are 'must haves' while buying their next handset.
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to Parijat Chakraborty, GM-IDC (India), this trend can be attributed to a
'more for less' wave in the Indian consumer market. He explains, “The
costs of these features in mobile handsets are coming down rapidly with
competition and technological development. Therefore, the otherwise
'advanced' features are becoming must haves for common cell phone users even
if their regular needs and lifestyle do not justify these features.”
It would be interes-ting to observe the actual usage of these features by
these aspirants in future. Chakraborty is however not expecting any major change
in the usage pattern of these features in the hands of common Indian cell phone
users. Features that are seldom used by the big majority of mobile phone users,
such as reminder, scheduler, organiser etc, have lost their shine and saliency
over time.
According to the IDC study, Sony Ericsson left behind all other mobile
handset brands to grab the number one spot in the handset user's overall
satisfaction, even though the brand has a very low overall market share. Nokia,
LG and Samsung followed closely at the number two, three and four respectively.
However, the major handset brands have all witnessed improvements in their
satisfaction scores compared to their ratings in last year's (2005) study.
to this year's IDC study, current mobile users are willing to spend on an
average Rs 7,100 while buying the next handset, which is a shade below as
compared to last year. “The average amount spent on the current handset is Rs
4,300; thereby an additional Rs 2,800 is likely to be spent while upgrading, a
good news for mobile handset manufacturers,” said Shailendra Gupta, Manager,
User Research, IDC (India).
The study also reveals some interesting facts on the mobile handset usage
front. On average a mobile handset is used for less than one hour in a day for
voice communication (incoming and outgoing calls) whereas it was more than an
hour a year back. “Reduction in voice usage is due to an increasing number of
subscribers being from low spending market segments such as workers and
students,” commented Gupta.
most commonly used service is SMS; and its usage has increased as compared to
last year. An average SMS user sends six messages in day, while the number of
messages received is slightly higher, at eight per day. This is due to a number
of messages from mobile service providers giving information about various
downloads like ring tones, bill related information and various contests.
The other reason is the messages received from public utility services such
as banks, railways, airlines etc. “The overall increased usage of SMS can be
attributed to reasonable tariff charges and widespread usage of SMS by TV shows,
public opinion polls etc,” Gupta further added.
The IDC India Mobile Handset Usage Satisfac-tion Study 2006 was conducted by
taking a sample of 3,140 mobile users (both GSM and CDMA). The study covered all
the four metros and 10 other major cities. Socio-economic categ-ory A, B and C
respondents were covered in this study.
DQW News Bureau New Delhi, April 28