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Interest in mobile TV overshadowed by other applications
- Survey also reveals European users’ views on Apple as mobile
phone provider
Reading – Wednesday, 16 May 2007
For immediate release
The first results from Canalys’ new consumer mobility survey
reveal some interesting attitudes and opinions from European
consumers on a range of topics, including Apple as a mobile phone
supplier, mobile TV services and GPS navigation in handsets. The
online survey was conducted in April among more than 2,000 employed,
adult mobile phone users in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the
UK.
- 51% of those surveyed expressed some interest in mobile TV,
but a diverse range of content is required
- Consumers are more open to advertising-supported services
around location and communication than TV
- 62% said it would be useful to have satellite navigation built
into their mobile phone
- Almost half the iPod owners in the survey said Apple likely to
be considered for their next mobile phone
iPod owners receptive to Apple as mobile phone provider
Respondents were asked to rate how likely they would be to choose
different vendor brands for their next personal mobile phone.
Unsurprisingly, Nokia came out as the clear leader, with almost half
the respondents giving the vendor the highest rating and 84% saying
they were more likely than not to consider it. Nokia was some way
ahead of Sony Ericsson, which was followed closely by Samsung and
then Motorola. Consumers’ ratings of Apple gave it a mid-table
position, behind LG, but marginally ahead of well-known smart mobile
device vendors like RIM, HP and Palm. Given that the iPhone has not
even shipped yet this gives an indication of how well its brand
could play in the consumer mobile phone space, but it will still
need to overcome the technical and channel-related challenges entry
into this market brings.
“Apple’s rating improves dramatically when you talk to existing
iPod owners,” said Pete Cunningham, senior analyst at Canalys.
“Almost half the respondents who owned an iPod rated Apple as more
likely than not be considered for their next phone, compared to just
20% for those who didn’t have an iPod, and they were five times as
likely to give Apple the highest rating. There is a lot of loyalty
there that Apple can tap into.”
Interest in mobile TV exists in pockets
Just under half the people in the survey said they had no
interest in watching any kind of TV on a mobile phone, even if the
service was free. The fact that 51% expressed some degree of
interest may be encouraging for operators planning to roll out such
services, but other data Canalys has drawn out of the survey
highlights the challenges ahead.
“When asked what types of mobile TV programming they would be
interested in, consumers’ preferences are quite diverse, and there
is unlikely to be one type of killer content,” commented analyst
Adrian Drozd. “This suggests many different content partnerships and
charging models may be required, which will add complexity for users
and for the operators developing such services.”
Live TV events, related to sports matches or reality shows, were
narrowly the most popular content type for mobile TV, which 29% of
respondents said they would watch. 23% said they would watch content
relating to hobbies or personal interests that they could not get at
home, but a similar proportion were interested in having access to
exactly the same channels as they had at home. 15% said they would
be interested in watching videos from web sites such as YouTube,
while 14% liked the idea of place-shifting content that they had
already recorded at home. As for duration of content, there were
similar levels of interest in short clips, half-hour programmes and
full-length movies, though the form-factor and battery life
constraints of mobile phones may make the latter particularly
difficult to deliver successfully.
“There is an opportunity to target particular consumer segments
that will likely be more responsive to certain mobile TV
propositions,” Drozd added. “For example, more than 40% of those who
were already frequent users of YouTube said they would watch similar
content on their phones. They also exhibited much higher levels of
interest in all other mobile TV content types.”
A big question for operators is how much consumers will be
willing to pay for such services. YouTube users may well have
greater interest, but are of course accustomed to getting video
content for free. Canalys also points out that those who are already
spending a large amount on pay-TV services at home cannot
necessarily be counted on to pay again for mobile TV. “Interest in
mobile TV is highest in households that spend more on pay-TV and
lowest among those that have only a free-to-air service,” said Drozd.
“But in the higher spending pay-TV households there was much greater
interest in having mobile access to the content they had already
paid for, either by having the same channels available on the phone
or by place-shifting content from home to the phone. It is hard to
imagine operators giving mobile access to all those channels away
cheaply, and place-shifting over the air is prohibitively expensive
without flat-rate data plans.”
Mobile navigation on phone sparks interest
Despite the existing association of TV with advertising,
resistance to an advertising-supported, but otherwise free, mobile
TV service was relatively high. “Consumers are much more excited by
the prospect of having GPS on the handset than mobile TV,”
Cunningham observed. “62% agreed or agreed strongly with the
statement that it would be useful to have satellite navigation built
into their phone, with even higher levels among existing navigation
system owners and regular business drivers. For
advertising-supported services, the survey showed higher interest
around vehicle and pedestrian navigation, mobile e-mail and IM than
for TV. It shouldn’t come as a great surprise that mobile
propositions with location or communication at their core resonate
the strongest with consumers. Operators need to think carefully
before prioritising unproven content services over applications that
consumers already accept are useful and have value.”
About the Consumer Mobility Analysis service
The research results discussed in this release come from the new
Canalys Consumer Mobility Analysis EMEA service, which provides
clients with analysis of results from a continuous programme of
large-scale consumer surveys. Each quarter, different mobility
topics and country markets within EMEA are covered by the survey to
provide monitoring of trends and reaction to new initiatives,
products and services. In addition to analysis of the survey
results, clients receive regular reports, supporting databases and
direct access to Canalys analysts.
More information...
Analyst photos
Photographs of the analyst(s) quoted in this
release are available in the biography
section and may be re-used by the press to accompany a relevant
article.
About Canalys
Canalys specialises in delivering high quality market data,
analysis and advice to the world’s leading technology vendors. It is
recognised as a key provider of continuous advisory services and
confidential custom projects for marketing managers and strategists
within blue-chip IT, telecoms, navigation and consumer electronics
companies. It has unrivalled expertise in European routes to market
for all kinds of high technology products and services in the
consumer, SMB and large enterprise segments, and provides worldwide
market data and trends analysis.
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