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MOBILE MARKET DEVELOPMENTS : MOBILE MARKET TRENDS |
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March 29, 2005 - "Cingular, AT&T Wireless ring up most complaints," Dan Richman, Seattle Post
- The total number of complaints filed about wireless phone service increased 38 percent: to 29,478 in 2004, from 21,357 in 2003.
- “The staggering increase in complaints is further evidence that reform is needed in the wireless phone market so consumers can get a fair shake,” said Janee Briesemeister, senior policy analyst for Consumers Union, the non-profit publisher of Consumer Reports, in a prepared statement.
- The combined complaints for Cingular-AT&T Wireless came in at 289 per 1 million customers. Of the national wireless companies, Verizon had the fewest complaints per 1 million, at 76.
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March 28, 2005 - “A phone that's as smart as you are,” Sam Diaz, San Jose Mercury News
- Gary Kovacs, vice president of marketing of Macromedia says they are launching a mobile version of Flash Player that will improve the viewing experience for cell phone users.
- “There's always been a simple Internet screen on the desktop and the paradigm on the mobile device has been to shrink that down to give the Internet experience on a mobile device,” he said. But that meant images often appeared too large for the portable device screen.
- “The users have been frustrated and the carriers have not seen a big uptake on data beyond text messages,” Kovacs said. “The experience matters.”
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March 17, 2005 - “Wireless carrier CEOs' message to showgoers: Keep it simple,” Tricia Duryee, Seattle Times
- Attendees at CTIA WIRELESS 2005 have voted and the Firefly Phone from Firefly Mobile has been chosen the Winning Wireless Widget at this year's event; the phone has been designed especially for kids ages 8-12 with parental control.
- Mattel, partnering with Single Touch, plans to introduce a Barbie cell phone this summer for girls 8 to 14. Parents will be able to control the phone through a Web site. The $50 phone comes with 30 minutes of talk time.
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March 15, 2005 - “Mobile Devices Get Their Own Internet Search Tools,” Thomas Claburn, InformationWeek
- Fast Search & Transfer ASA, a search-technology company, on Monday introduced Fast mSearch, a mobile search application designed to help users find content that's relevant and functional for cell phones and PDAs.
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March 15, 2005 - “Survey confirms love-hate cell-phone relationship,” Jeffrey Silva, RCR Wireless News
- The University of Michigan polled more than 80% of a nationally representative sample of 752 Americans age 18 and older who said cell phones are a major safety hazard when used while driving, and almost 90% said a police officer should indicate on accident reports whether drivers were using cell phones at the time of crashes.
- 30% of those polled agreed or strongly agreed that people should be reachable any time or any place, according to the survey.
- 64% of those surveyed were somewhat or very concerned that using cell phones made them vulnerable to the theft of Social Security, bank account and other personal identification numbers
- One in nine Americans (11% of those surveyed) said they had none of the devices or access to cell phones, computers, personal digital assistants, VCRs, digital video players and recorders, and Internet access at home, while one in five (19%) had four or five.
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March 14, 2005 - “Are camera phones losing their snap?” Ben Charny, CNET News.com
- Kodak CEO Daniel Carp said a Kodak market study found that most camera phone owners find their devices less than satisfying, even though they used the cameras to snap about 70 billion photos last year. Nearly two-thirds of camera phone owners rarely, if ever, upload pictures to a computer. And 70 percent never (or rarely) send photos to other phones. Notoriously short camera phone battery life; photo quality, especially in daylight; and the complexity of printing pictures are causing major headaches for the 180 million camera phone owners worldwide.
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March 14, 2005 - “Poll of cell phone users finds majority get annoyed at public cell phone use,” Associated Press
- The University of Michigan poll found that six in 10 cell phone users say that using a cell phone in public can be “a major irritation.”
- About four in 10 said there should a law that prohibits people from talking on cell phones in public places like museums, movie theaters and restaurants.
- Eight in 10 said cell phones are a major safety hazard if used while driving.
- About eight in 10 cell phone users said the phones have made their lives easier.
- The poll of 752 adults was taken from March 3-10 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
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March 14, 2005 - “Content Is King - P-Diddy, Eastman Kodak And Espn Keynote At Wireless,” CTIA Press Release
- Today, 17% of the average monthly wireless bill consists of taxes and fees.
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March 14, 2005 - “Souped-up cellphones like tiny PCs,” Tricia Duryee, The Seattle Times
- According to Yankee Group, only 5 percent of cellphone revenue in North America comes from fee-based data services, which suggests a lot of room for growth.
- 43 percent of text messages in the U.S. are spam.
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March 14, 2005 - “Nokia, Virgin Mobile USA Unveil 'Shorty',” Susan Rush, Device News
- Nokia and Virgin Mobile USA unveiled a jointly developed easy-to-use handset targeting the youth market dubbed "Shorty," featuring changeable Xpress-on color covers, downloadable polyphonic ringtones, a flashlight, text messaging, a wireless WAP 1.1 browser, voice dialing and commands and voice memo recording, and will retail for under $60.
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March 10, 2005 - “Sprint looks to fix customer problems with in-store repair,” David Twiddy, Associated Press
- Sprint plans to have repair shops in more than half of its 800 retail locations across the country by mid-March to fix customer problems in-store.
- Cingular Wireless, on the other hand, is phasing out its in-store repair shops in favor of letting customers with malfunctioning phones call a toll-free number and get a replacement phone sent to them overnight.
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March 8, 2005 - “Cell phones dial into the preteen market,” Janet Kornblum, USA TODAY
- Only 1% of children under 9 owned cell phones in 2004, But that didn't include the kids who carried adult cell phones on an as-needed basis.
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February 2005 - “Cell phones: Best choices,” ConsumerReports.org
- In the late 1980s, federal agencies paid around 38 cents per minute for long-distance voice calls. Today, that's down to around a penny a minute.
- U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) seeks to negotiate competitive contracts with telecom carriers as it prepares to issue a third-generation request for proposals next month for telecom- and IT-services contracts that could be worth as much as $20 billion over 10 years to winning bidders.
- All major carriers provide insurance that covers lost, stolen, or damaged phones, typically for about $4 to $5 a month, with a $35 to $50 deductible. At those rates,
it wouldn't pay to insure a low-priced phone. But if $200 was paid or more, then insurance may be worth considering.
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Visiongain study, Wireless for Seniors 2004
- With targeted marketing programmes, Visiongain believes that the revenues created by the Seniors market will rise from €4.7 billion in Western Europe in 2003 to €17.7 billion in 2008. If this market was left un-nurtured, it would only rise to €5.8 billion in the same period.
- After conducting a survey amongst respondents in the 55+ market, Visiongain found that of those who did not own a mobile 13 percent stated that the cost of ownership was too high, whilst 27 percent said they didn't want one.
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Today, mobile communication is moving "from the business of ears to the business of eyes." "The Mobile Revolution" is the first comprehensive account of the explosion of mobile services (rich
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>>More About the Book
>>Dan Steinbock Bio
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