September 23, 2005
We Want More Battery Life, Study Shows
According to a study conducted by TNS, longer battery life tops the list of features consumers would like from their cell phones and PDAs. Consumers are also interested in their phones having high resolution cameras:
"Over 75 percent of mobile phone and PDA users in the United States rate 'two-days of battery life during active use' as the most important feature of an ideal converged device of the future, according to a new study by TNS, a leading global provider of market information. This feature is considered more important to the respondents of only two other countries included in the study - Sweden and The Netherlands, indicating the value that American technology users place on battery life.
The study, conducted among 15 countries during July and August 2005, was undertaken to uncover what would drive consumer demand for mobile devices in the future, as well as benchmarking brand performance and use of existing mobile phone, PDA and laptop applications. One section of the study looked at consumer views on 'converged devices' a device which "will replace the multiple devices which people carry around now for all communication, information and entertainment needs" while being compact and incorporating a mobile phone and high speed Internet as standard.
According to the study, after battery life the next most important features to U.S. users were high resolution camera and video camera (50 percent of respondents), the availability of full versions of Microsoft Office applications on the device (42 percent), and a device with 20 Gigabytes of memory (41 percent).
Mirroring U.S. sentiments, 'two days of battery life during active use' topped the wish list of key features in 14 of the 15 countries surveyed, indicating that insufficient battery life is still a real "pain point" for consumers around the globe. Reaffirming this, concern with using up battery is one of the top reasons why consumers do not use games, music and TV applications on their mobile device more frequently. Respondents in China were the exception, saying '20 Gigabytes of memory' is the key feature to have in the future.
Across all countries, almost half of respondents say a 'high resolution camera and video camera' (48 percent) and '20 Gigabytes of memory' (47 percent), would be important features to incorporate. In Brazil, a much higher emphasis was placed on video conferencing with 53 percent of people identifying this as a key feature, compared to an average of just 25 percent across all countries surveyed."
And lots of us have camera phones, and we like to put them to use:
"Camera use among global mobile phones owners is also prevalent, with 59 percent of people who own camera phones using them at least once a week. Camera phones were used most frequently in France, Korea and the UK with almost a quarter using this function daily. Only 10 percent of U.S. respondents use their camera phone on a daily basis, and almost 70 percent of users never use a camera phone at all. Camera features on PDA's are used relatively less frequently, with only 46 percent of PDA users with such a feature using it at least once a week."
Source: BusinessWire
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Posted by BJ at September 23, 2005 11:05 AM
