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Survey reveals extent of shift in mobile UI preferences
- More than half want a touchscreen in their next phone
Reading (UK) – Monday, 2 November 2009
For immediate release
Canalys Q3 2009 EMEA PC research highlights
In a recent survey conducted by Canalys with more than 3,000
mobile phone users across France, Germany and the UK, 38% said a
finger-based touchscreen would be the preferred main user interface
on their next mobile phone, with a further 16% opting for a
stylus-based touchscreen, suggesting a continuing market shift
toward touch-centric devices. This bodes well for smart phone
vendors whose designs are focused on delivering a great experience
in this area and should prompt those lagging behind to reconsider
their strategies.
But the results also raise questions about how well users are
coping with the finger-based touchscreen UIs currently on the market
and how good a design job vendors have done so far. Of those for
whom this was already their primary method of interacting with the
phone, only 47% said they would choose the same type of UI on their
next model. While higher than the mean across all users it does
suggest disappointment with current UIs. Looking at the results by
handset brand, HTC and Apple stood out as having a much higher
proportion of users wanting to stick with the same type of UI, while
Sony Ericsson had the lowest proportion among the major handset
vendors, at just 29%.
“The results suggest that consumer awareness of touchscreen UIs
is very high, driven by the marketing of Apple, Samsung and others,
and there is no doubt that the changes in device design we have seen
over the past couple of years have produced some very exciting
products,” said Pete Cunningham, senior analyst at Canalys, “But it
is also apparent that, with experience, a significant proportion of
users have not been totally won over by some of these devices. This
is to be expected, as it is quite a big shift for many users to
make, but a poor experience with one touchscreen device may dissuade
users from trying another one in the future and it is imperative
that vendors focus on usability and practicality as well as visual
appeal, and continue to enhance their interfaces. There has always
been a question mark over how well touchscreens would work among an
SMS-centric audience and the results indicate the transition has not
been totally smooth.”
The group with the least desire for finger-centric touchscreen
products was, interestingly, those that currently use a stylus-based
device. “This is another example of how strongly current user
experience sets future expectations,” Cunningham added. “It is
likely that many of those users perceive moving from stylus to
finger as a loss of precision that would degrade usability, hence
the underlying resistance. However, within this group there was
notably less push back by current HTC and Samsung owners – two
vendors that put their own finger-driven UI on top of Windows Mobile
– which suggests they may be more successful in migrating customers
in this segment.”
Overall, future interest in finger-centric touchscreens varied
little across demographic groups, tariff types and countries,
reinforcing the view that they have mass-market appeal. Men showed a
slightly higher preference than women – 40% versus 35%. Those aged
between 22 and 45 were more positive than those in younger and older
age groups, but again the differences were not dramatic.
“We are at a critical time in the mobile industry,” commented
Canalys VP Mike Welch. “The user awareness and interest is clearly
there, and the opportunity to drive a mass change in user
interaction, and hence device capabilities and the opening up of new
application and service revenue streams, is tantalisingly close. But
only if users continue to embrace these new UIs once they have tried
them. This is the new arena in which mobile vendors must
differentiate themselves, and the user experience battle will spread
to other product categories, such as netbooks.”
Changing mobile user behaviour will be one of the many important
topics discussed at the Canalys Mobility Forum in London on November
17. Full details are available at
www.canalysmobilityforum.com.
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 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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