Oliver brought up an interesting report from Jupiter. I have two things to add to this thread:
1) Nokia has a program for analyzing how people use Series 60 phones. Much as with the HipTop, Series 60 users have always been bigger users of advanced data services and more frequent users of even SMS.
As Oliver says, it’s a mixture of self-selection – power-users want more capable phones – but I also agree that it’s part due to the greater sophistication of the phone and easier access to greater features.
Nothing new there, but just saying that this trend is likely to be universal for all higher-end devices (that are well designed).
Also, as a side note, I’ve been trying to see how that S60 data can be made ‘free’. Some real good nuggets of info.*
2) Here in Finland, operators started subsidizing 3G phones (only). At first blush, this goes against what so many of us hold dear. But, I gotta say, it’s a great thing. I have see a ton more 3G phones in regular folks’ hands in the past three months than in the past few years. In short, selective subsidies can accelerate the adoption of a new category of device and maybe change people’s mobile behaviours.
And that means that more people will be exposed to these more sophisticated phones, more likely to use the advanced services, and more likely to drive the creation of advanced services. I see a win-win-win for users, manufacturers, and operators. Agreed?
Link: MobileCrunch � Danger Sidekick Users Blow Away SMS and Web-Viewing Averages on Mobile Devices.
Danger Sidekick user consume mobile data in amounts that make average use pale by comparison.
*And has anyone read the recent Strategy Analytics report that folks only use a few features on their phones?
Is it only me, or the phone MobileCrunch is talking about is mainly used by T-Mobile users which in turn have the chance to have flat data rates?
I mean: there is no way you can separate heavy use of the data connection from flat data rates, especially thinking what 2G/3G data really costs. I’m sure I’ll use my phone much more often for data once it will be WiFi capable.
Once I read that the only way operators or vendors can eventually create killer applications is by paying their own phone bills. This way, they could really understand what the average user would be ready to pay and what not. My guess is that with this framework, we wouldn’t have seen the wap. 😉
Alfonso,
Quite right about the paying part. I call it the ‘dark side’ of the mobile Web. And I keep telling colleagues from Nokia how twisted our perceptions are because we don’t relly know the cost of having an advanced phone and paying for advanced services.
Thanks for pointing this out.
Tchau,
Charlie
well, win-win-win always is the objective with business, 3-G mobile is a different story, as it is targeting majority the trend buyers who do not need the benefits however just a sheer want!