Responses to surveys of mobile phone service provider business customers in the U.S., China, India, Indonesia, UK, Germany and France conducted by ABI Research indicate that mobile devices providing the best experiences with multimedia, applications, and productivity features are those most favored.
The latest ABI Research global survey results include:
- Multimedia was the top reason Western European respondents chose their current mobile phone; 50 percent of those who plan to upgrade to a smartphone chose applications and Internet access as the top reasons for their smartphone selections.
- More than 50 percent of Indian and Indonesian respondents chose their smartphones based on multimedia capability.
- The top reason stated by 54 percent of Chinese respondents who plan to upgrade to a smartphone is a better multimedia experience; for Indonesians 35 percent will upgrade based on improved multimedia experiences.
- 47 percent of Indians who upgrade to a smartphone chose corporate email and applications as the top reasons to upgrade.
- 60 percent of U.S. smartphone respondents say data services are more important than voice services for business use.
- Wi-Fi for Internet access, location-based services, speakerphones, and touchscreens are the top features rated as extremely or very desirable in a mobile phone by 40 percent of U.S. respondents.
What does this market insight mean to mobile device vendors?
According to ABI Research enterprise practice director Dan Shey, "Now that the mobile device platform environment is stabilizing by brand and form factor, the real work with the enterprise segment begins for the mobile device community."
Businesses now want to translate platform capabilities into real business results. The winners will be those that offer the best combination of functionality, security and -- increasingly -- multimedia capabilities.
