Euro Mobile Users Wave Goodbye To Old Phones
Almost one in three mobile phone users in Europe want a new phone within the next year and a significant proportion would like access to advanced features, according to a report from Forrester Research.
Demand for upgrades Just over 20% of mobile phone replacers want an advanced phone. These consumers tend to be young highly educated people who like wireless services, such as SMS. Forrester found that 27% of these users prefer their mobile phone to their regular phone, compared to 15% of European owners who do not plan to change their handset.
| Profile Of European Mobile Phone Users | |||
| Mobile Phone Replacers* | No Intention To Replace Phone | All Mobile Phone Users | |
| Male | 53% | 46% | 50% |
| Average Age | 38 | 45 | 41 |
| High Education | 38% | 26% | 32% |
| High Income | 37% | 32% | 35% |
| Heavy SMS Users (2+ sent per week) | 62% | 30% | 43% |
| Prefer Mobile Phone To Regular Phone | 27% | 15% | 19% |
| Interested In Getting An Advanced Phone | 21% | 6% | 12% |
| * intend to replace phone in 2004 | |||
| Source: Forrester Research, January 2004 | |||
Favoured features European mobile phone replacers seem to want rich communication and self-expressive facilities. This is evidenced by survey results which show colour screens and MMS to be the most popular features. Ring tones and cameras also score highly but the study shows that operators still have work to do to convince mobile owners to sign up for online services such as i-mode and Vodafone live!