Nokia survey finds mobile phones may replace cameras and MP3 players

Many respondants use their mobile as their primary camera

6 June 2006 12:40 GMT / By Amber Maitland

A recent study by Nokia finds, perhaps unsurprisingly, that people want and, indeed, expect more from their mobile phones than just phone calls.

According to the survey, 44% use their mobile as their primary camera, and 72% say that their mobile has rendered their alarm clock obsolete as they rely on their phone to wake them up.

Despite the relatively high cost of surfing the net with a mobile, 36% of respondents say they use their mobiles to go online at least once a month, whereas 37% of Japanese respondents go online with their mobiles at least once a day.

Mobile phones are more important to 21% of respondents than their wallet, credit cards, or their wedding ring.

Nokia also pried into the music habits of those surveyed, to find out the 67% download a percentage of their music, while 87% believe they buy more music now than before they owned a digital music device. Of those surveyed, 67% say that mobile phones will replace their MP3 players.

In the home, almost half the respondents want all their gadgets, including printer, PC, and mobile device, interconnected.

The survey was run by ICM Research, who interviewed 500 people in each of eleven countries for a total of 5500 respondents.