A study conducted by management consulting firm A.T. Kearney and the Judge Business School, Cambridge University has found that mobile phone users are increasingly comfortable with mobile data services but continue to worry about content and price.
The Mobinet 2005 study, which has been conducted eight times since 2000, found that more than half of mobile phone handsets amongst those owners surveyed are less than one year old in ownership and that they have robust multimedia capabilities. Of these multimedia phone users, 56% said they use their phones to access the Internet or check e-mail at least once a month. This is up from 36% last year.
Mobile phone users continue to send more pictures, photos and video clips through the use of multimedia messaging services (MMS). One third of multimedia phone owners now use MMS at least monthly, and MMS is used regularly by nearly half of all 19- to 24-year-olds. Additionally, One-third of users with multimedia devices downloaded music monthly, up from 21 percent in 2004. Mobile gaming increased in Japan, the Americas and Scandinavia, but levels of repeat use so far remain below those of mobile music. Globally, 16 percent of users with multimedia phones reported downloading mobile games at least monthly. Seventeen percent of users (and 27 percent of those under age 24) said they were willing to pay for mobile TV.
As for cost versus content, the survey found that
