The Japanese mobile phone market is leading the way in terms of advance feature uptake, with consumers using their handsets for wireless ringtone downloading and surfing the web.
According to a new survey from the NPD Group, a massive 76% of mobile phone users in Japan are going online via their mobile phones, compared to just 12% of US mobile phone users.
Japanese consumers were found more likely to use a wide array of features on their handsets, including wireless mobile email, ringtone downloads, mobile gaming, picture messaging, digital music listening, video messaging, and mobile TV and video.
NPD attributes one of the reasons for this dramatic uptake in mobile technology to Japanese consumers being more “on the lookout” for the latest technology trends, resulting in Japanese carriers pushing to provide the most advanced features to remain competitive.
However, NPD believes that the American market will catch up with Japan. Neil Strother, research director for NPD mobile devices explained: “Given the fact that Americans are also highly susceptible to converting the latest and greatest communications gadgets, we can expect the domestic mobile phone market to react in a similar way to new leading-edge features.”
Traditionally the US has lagged behind other advanced wireless markets when it comes to text and other messaging usage.
However, recent figures from strategy and management consultancy firm, Analysys, claims that the average user increased messaging activity by 50% last year, forecast to account for 10% of US operators’ revenues by 2008 (see US Catches Up On Mobile Messaging Trend).
New predictions from the Yankee Group confirms this trend, forecasting US 3G subscriber numbers to reach 28 million by 2008, up from the current level of 580,000 (see US 3G Subscribers To Hit 28 Million By 2008).
UK consumers are also adopting advance features in their mobile devices, with latest the UK Mobile Media Monitor study, showing that the majority of younger adults now use picture messaging and the mobile internet, with 36% of mobile owners now using their phones to send and receive picture messages, up from 21% at the same time last year (see UK Mobile Users Embrace Picture Messaging).
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