New survey finds 3G still a turn off

A new survey has suggested that 3G is still yet to capture the interest of mobile phone users

10 February 2006 0:00 GMT / By Stuart Miles

A new survey has suggested that 3G is still yet to capture the interest of mobile phone users.

The survey, carried out on the eve of the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, suggests that UK consumers are finding mobile services increasingly confusing to use and that concerns around ease-of-use are still holding them back from buying and using 3G handsets and services.

According to the poll, 79 percent of the 2,000 respondents believe mobile phone services are getting more complicated to understand and configure, compared with 71 percent of respondents in a similar survey carried out in January 2005.

Furthermore, 73 percent of the early-adopters that already own 3G phones rarely use the 3G services and applications available to them. Indeed 28 percent never use them at all.

Of those that did not already own a 3G phone, less than half (47 percent) were confident that they would find 3G phones and services easy-to-use and only 8 per cent of respondents are considering upgrading to a 3G phone.

“This research is likely to be a bit disappointing for the mobile industry,” comments John Hughes, cofounder and executive vice president of Netonomy who commissioned the survey.

Full tags

Phones, Mobile phones, 3G