Cellphone users not gadget geeks

While manufacturers are figuring out how to squeeze more gadgets inside our handsets, most people are unaware and certainly unmoved by the presence of satellite navigation systems, the ability to surf the internet, listen to the radio, record a meeting or send an email.

All we really want is to make phone calls, send text messages and take the occasional photo.

Oh, and we also want the cellular networks to offer a lot better quality than they currently do, according to the latest Mobility report by World Wide Worx.

Cellphones are now bristling with an average of more than seven features, of which most customers use fewer than three.

Anyone over the age of 35 is likely to use even fewer, with the younger, more tech-savvy generation skewing the figures by exploring features older folks ignore.

Anyone who has breached the hill of 45 is likely to find the more complex features rather terrifying, the survey suggests.

The digital divide among cellphone users is not about race, income or location, but purely a matter of how old you are.

The survey polled 1000 consumers, 1000 small businesses and 240 large companies, covering all ages, races and income levels.

“We all have phones that are incredibly complex with tremendous features but we are not getting to grips with them,” says Steven Ambrose of World Wide Worx. “Most people use very little of the power built into their devices.”

That is confirmed by figures showing that 76% of their spending goes on voice calls and 16% on SMSes, with just 8% spent on peripheral services.

The most popular “extra” feature is a camera, used by 56% of the respondents.

What determines whether flashier features are used is how easy they are to operate and whether there is actually a need for them, says World Wide Worx managing director Arthur Goldstuck. “Everyone has a reason to take pictures,” he says.

Not everyone has a reason to guide themselves using mapping technology, so the satellite mapping service is used by only 5%.

Mobile TV appeals to a mere 1%, and has flopped completely after a minor flurry of interest during the 2006 Soccer World Cup.

Mobile television was dead in the water, Goldstuck says, and MultiChoice has a huge task ahead if it hopes to persuade people to watch the mobile TV services it is now piloting.

Poor quality networks are a big bugbear, with only a quarter of users describing themselves as extremely satisfied with the service, plunging from 48% last year.

“Consumers are extremely unsatisfied with the networks, not only with the quality of calls and number of dropped calls, but with their experience in trying to deal with the networks,” Goldstuck says. “You get passed from one call centre agent to another.”

The level of interest in using handsets for more sophisticated services may change as the ability to pay for goods and manage bank accounts electronically migrates off the internet and on to cellphones.

More people now bank by phone than online, with 16% of bank account holders using the internet and 28% using their cellphones — up from 17% a year ago.

Two-thirds conduct balance inquiries and receive notifications of transactions, and half view statements on the small screen. A third transfer cash between accounts and 28% pay bills.

Growth in cellphone banking is galloping, agrees Len Pienaar, CEO of FNB's mCommerce division.

Almost a third of FNB customers use cellphone banking and in some areas that rises to 50%.

Up to 4000 new users sign up each day, and most are black working-class citizens.

“It's the first technology that crosses income barriers, racial barriers and age barriers,” Pienaar says. “It's growing by 8%-10% each month and when it started three years ago we were struggling to get people to see what cellphone banking was.”

Any company selling goods and services should be looking at how to sell them over a cellphone, he says, because there will never be enough computer-based internet users in SA to match that business case.

Source: Business Day

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