Brits mainly use their mobile phones for texting and voice calls
Despite the diverse range of mobile phone handsets boasting a myriad of advanced features, 60% of UK consumers still use their mobiles exclusively for sending text messages and making phone calls.
Three in five people who took part in the SNAPin Software survey said that they were simply not interested in using the other mobile services available on their phone, while nearly a third were confused about how they’d be billed, and one in five said they couldn’t be bothered to learn how to use new features.
For those who do venture into other feature, 30% use the camera and send photos, though just 12% use the email or Internet functionality of their phones.
Only one in a hundred had ever blogged from their mobile phone — hardly surprising given how fiddly typing can be on most handsets — while only 3% used street navigation services.
It’s a wake-up call to mobile handset manufacturers that feature-packed phones need to be simple and intuitive to use. It also suggests that mobile network operators need to provide simpler calling and data plans so that consumers aren’t confused, or frightened that they’ll receive a huge phone bill.
That’s what the iPhone coupled with a flat-rate data plan did so well, and is why it’s one of the few phones that really encouraged its users to use the Internet — despite having to rely on slower mobile networks most of the time.
