60% say mobiles are overcomplicated

Modern handsets have too many functions and features

19 June 2009 14:43 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

As the arguably sophisticated Nokia N97, Nokia N86 and iPhone 3G S go on sale in the UK today, it's been revealed that 60% of UK consumers think mobile phones are "overcomplicated with unnecessary features".

The data from mobile phone recycling company Fonebank's recent survey also states that over a third say "simplicity of use" is the most important factor when buying a new mobile, with 45% not looking for MP3 playback and 30% not bothered about the camera's quality.

61% - that we guess won't have been queuing at any smartphone launches this morning - think phones have too many unnecessary features, compared to 10 years ago, while 73% think phones are less reliable now.

Giving an indication of the tastes (or maybe age group) of those surveyed, the 1000-plus respondents voted the Motorola RAZR as the UK's favourite mobile phone of all time.

Full tags
Phones, Mobile phones, Mobile phone industry, Statistics, Surveys, Fonebank
UK Shopping
mobiles.co.uk, three.co.uk, carphonewarehouse.co.uk, Nokia.co.uk, o2.co.uk, orange.co.uk, phones4u.co.uk, t-mobile.co.uk, vodafone.co.uk, ebay.co.uk
US Shopping
bestbuy.com, ebay.com

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Comments

  • Quite agree. Having been sent an upgrade by Orange, a Prada something and what a stupid, clumpy thing it is with lamentable reception and unreliable operating system I have reverted to my 10 year old Samsung which is far simpler to use being just a telephone, which is all I wanted anyway. Personally I loathe gimmicks and cannot be doing with stupid noises, squeaks or buzzes or other irritating things that seem to be the fabric of the modern mobile telephone. Plain, durable, simple and reliable will do. Posted by Jeremy James, UK
  • I'm always so surprised that some of the biggest phone makers spend what they do and still manage to make these horrible handsets. Apple seems to be the only outfit that understands that a feature is not a feature unless it's very easy to use and just "works". They'll remain streets ahead until others start thinking outside-of-the-box a bit more. Posted by Steve, UK
  • Totally agree - I have for ages been using a Nokia and recently switched to a slightly newer phone, still Nokia, simply because I wanted to have a camera within the phone. It's great. I now use the camera and a small set of the other phone features - be even better when I can work out how to get the photos I've taken onto my PC! Posted by Diane Ray - www.moneyhighstreet.com, UK
  • I totally agree to the above derived facts about the technology up gradation and also non-usage of multimedia has made the device appear simple at usage. But to recycle mobile I need to approach a better recycling company, where I can sell mobile. Posted by Jaymonds, UK

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