Selected survey results show that multimedia was the top reason Western European respondents chose their current mobile phone; 50% 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% of Indian and Indonesian respondents chose their smartphones based on multimedia capability.
The top reason stated by 54% of Chinese respondents who plan to upgrade to a smartphone is a better multimedia experience; for Indonesians 35% will upgrade based on improved multimedia experiences.
47% of Indians who upgrade to a smartphone chose corporate email and applications as the top reasons to upgrade.
60% of US 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/very desirable in a mobile phone by 40% of US respondents.
What does this mean for 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.”