British mobile phone subscribers are holding on to their handsets for longer, hindering a revival in the telecoms industry. This is the upshot of of a new report by Taylor Nelson Sofres which examined mobile ownership in the year to April.
With mobile phone penetration levels reaching saturation level in the UK, manufacturers and retailers are relying on upgrades to shore up flagging sales. However, the research, carried out by TNS TeleComTrak (TCT), indicates that the average British mobile owner has the same phone for twenty months, compared with just sixteen months a year ago.
The study also found that age is an important factor in the length of time that individuals keep a handset. 12-24 year olds have had their phones for an average of seventeen months, while 35-44 year olds tend to keep theirs for about twenty-one months.
Reluctance to change TNS acknowledges that consumer demand for smaller, lighter more fashionable phones has now been satisfied and there is less incentive for owners to change their handsets.
“While technological developments have continued, little seems to have caught consumersÂ’ imagination enough to drive upgrades at the same rate,” said Derek McInnes, Head of TeleComTrak. “The industry is desperately trying to find the next major driver for change but its current attempts donÂ’t appear to be having the desired effect.”
Outlook The news is not entirely bleak for telecoms companies as about 70% (nearly 10 million) of contract subscriptions have been active for over a year. There are also 6 million active pre-pay handsets that were bought in the six months before Christmas 2000. TNS predicts that a large proportion of these users will apply for an upgrade.
There is also optimism that colour displays, multimedia messaging services (MMS) and 3G services will help to reinvigorate the market. Wireless gaming is also set to take off with Screen Digest predicting that European spending in this area will rise from E70 million last year to E2.2 billion by 2006 (see Bright Future Predicted For Gaming Platforms).
“The Telecoms industry has matured very quickly over the last year or so, and key players have learned that in any marketplace, products are bought to fulfil needs,” said McInnes. “What they have to identify now is the next consumer need, not the next technology.” he concluded.
