Survey of SmartPhone Users Reveals High Consumption of Mobile Content

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.webitpr.com/release_detail.asp?ReleaseID=4244' target='_blank'>http://www.webitpr.com/release_deta...?ReleaseID=4244</a><br /><br /></div><i>"M:Metrics, the mobile market authority, today issued the findings of its May Benchmark Survey. The firm found that while smart-phone owners comprise a small percentage of the overall population of mobile phone users, large percentages of smart-phone users are consuming mobile content. Contrary to popular belief, those carrying these powerful devices are not using them exclusively for productivity applications, but are also using them to view mobile video, play mobile games and listen to mobile music in addition to using them for personal e-mail and wireless Web access."</i><br /><br />While SmartPhone users still constitute a smaller percentage of overall mobile phone users, the survey finds that a much higher percentage of those users do take advantage of some of the more advanced features of their phone, such as streaming music and video. Honestly, I'm not totally sure why this was a surprise to the survey team. <br /><br />What I did find interesting was that the top three SmartPhones used in both France and Germany were all Nokia devices whereas the top three in the US were the Palm Treo 650 CDMA, Palm Treo 650 GSM, and RIM Blackberry 7520. I believe RIM will remain strong for a while, but in my opinion, Palm OS devices are a dying breed. Do you guys see Windows Mobile devices joining this top three over the next year or so?

[eugarps]

:? Hello,

I own a Treo 650 and just sold an iPAQ 6515. In my opinion the future is indeed bright for the Windows Mobile 5 environment, if only some WM manufacturer could come up with higher resolution screen (my Treo's a 320x320 and my iPAQ's was 240x240) and bigger batteries (Muggen Power makes a 2,200mah battery for my Treo but the biggest I could find for the 6515 was 1,500mah). I know you can get bigger batteries for the iPAQ hw6515 but you deal with a lump on the back of the phone. The big battery for my Treo fits inside the existing case.

That said, the Treo is getting dated and the WM environment is richer. I'm looking at replacing the Treo with an ETen M600+ as soon as a couple of ebayers pay for the iPAQ hw6515 and iPAQ 6320 I just sold. I have the Mobile 5 upgrade running on my iPAQ hx2750 and really like it.

Best,

Bill

[patrickj]

Absolutely believe that Windows Mobile will be making further headway, and joining / surpassing leaders in the not too distant future.

[silver99]

If battery performance is increased then I would say 'yes' to WM5 devices. However that being said, eventhough I'm a devouted PPC fan (I have the Axim X50v), our work supplied us with Blackberry 7250s and I'm very impressed how well it integrates with our exchange server and pushes email to our devices immediately.

I'm also testing out the Emoze application for PPC but I much prefer the unified device of the Blackberry (voice/data) compared to the PPC.

The ONLY contender I see at the is point making the difference it he PPC world is the Motoral Q. I haven't used it but from what I see it looks like a very capable device.

[patrickj]

Battery life is very good on several WM devices I've used. For instance, te Cingular 8125 easily gets me through 2 work days of mid-to-heavy phone usage, DirectPush email during peak hours, web browsing, submitting work orders from client sites, and general application usage. It is better than what I experienced on a Treo 650 prior to the 8125.

The Q definitely looks interesting and capable, but I think there are a good number of WM devices that stack up very well all around - the Treo 700W, the 8125, various other HTC Pocket PC phones ...

[stllhogan]

In my mind one reason why the treo and Black berry do better is because they have less hardware. windows mobile is everywhere and people pick each device that fits them, if you want a black berry its very limited as is the palm, only a few devices. kinda like comparing mac notebooks to windows notebooks. its just because the os is more available on more hardware, but they also sell nice hardware to keep the customers coming back.

palm in my mind has good support, so does apple, both do very well with people coming back. one main reason people switch from palm to ppc or just drop it all together is palm, isn't as "strong" of an OS.

And the nokia's in France and Germany, they are just more popular in general over there. with a few series only released to Europe, and Asia. The U.S. is lacking in nokia. but nokia also often costs a bit more but you get more. and most people just want a phone and one with a camera, just something shiny.