THE RAPID ADOPTION and growth of smart phones and other mobile computing devices has pushed the expectation needle for the ideal feature set to new levels. While most handsets today include features such as a digital camera, GPS, and touchscreen, new research from In-Stat found that 75% of survey respondents named 4G as the ideal phone feature.
“Although 4G is an important feature for handset buyers, there is a lot of confusion surrounding 4G,” said analyst Greg Potter, in the survey's news release. “When survey respondents were asked which carrier offered the fastest 4G speeds, the majority of the respondents either didn’t know or felt they were the same across carriers.”
Additional findings from Next-Generation Phones: Consumer Insights Drive Future Handset Designs include:
– Consumers are becoming more entrenched in their choice of operating system: 36% will only consider one phone OS, compared with only 23% last year;
– Over 40% of respondents say they have no interest at all in using an NFC payment system;
– The percentage of people willing or might be willing to pay for Bluetooth is declining, dropping from 45% in 2006 to 35% in 2011; and
– Over 20% of T-Mobile users answering the survey said they were planning on switching carriers in the next 12 months.
