It's Mobile Madness
Illawarra Mercury
Tuesday September 6, 2005
HOLD the phone! If unanswered mobile phones with annoying ring tones are driving you crazy then book yourself into the closest cuckoo's nest because it looks like it's only going to get worse.
While 17.4 million Australians own a mobile (and according to my independent market research about 17.39 million of them possess ridiculous ring tones), this number is positively lagging when compared with some countries where there are more mobile phones than people to answer them.In Norway last year, according to official figures, there were 4.7 million registered cell phone subscribers, meaning 102 per cent of the country's total population had switched to mobile phones. Those crazy Scandinavians are not alone in their passion for mobility, with Lithuania -hardly a nation known for its uptake of high-tech gadgetry - also boasting more mobile phone subscribers than there are people in the small Baltic country.So while you don't need a national survey to recognise the mobile phone industry is booming, you do need regular output of research and surveys to state the bleeding obvious about what we are actually doing with all these phones. For like any booming industry, every marketing "guru" and new age consultant has jumped on board to try to second-guess the next big thing in the mobile phone "category" to make a motzah from the cash cow. As sure as there's always one loser in a movie cinema who's forgotten to turn off the mobile, like clockwork every couple of weeks new research is released that "provides insight" into the behaviour of the average Australian mobile phone user or outlines "new trends" in usage. One of the most recent surveys is the inaugural Australian Mobile Phone Lifestyle Index from an industry group called the Mobile Content Industry Development Group,which hopes to publish this new index twice a year to highlight changing trends amongst Aussie phone users. And boy we will all be waiting with bated breath for these reports based on the amazing insights the first has provided. The research has stated that SMS is a big hit with 97 per cent of the 2400 survey participants who indicated they regularly use the text facility. And, wait for it, apparently they mainly use text to communicate with close friends, friends and family. Who knew? It also revealed that more than half of the respondents had purchased content for their phone in the past year with, again, very few surprises. Apparently females accessed astrology information more than males, while the blokes accessed more news, comedy, sport and adult content.What will they find out next? Interestingly the report did highlight the significantly different ways people of different ages and demographics use their mobiles.Apparently "17 to 18-year-olds used chat and astrology services significantly more than other age groups, whilst 36-40 year olds had significantly higher usage of "lotto number information". So while we're younger we look to the stars to find happiness, but when you get older you give up on those odds and just play lotto.While the people behind the report are obviously using the information to develop products to meet demands of the average mobile phone users, some of the research does reveal how we operate and how quickly mobile phones have become such an integral part of our lives. The average consumer cannot get enough of them and people now seem lost without having an intimate relationship with a mobile phone. For the marketer, mobile phones are the perfect product: they are part protector (people no longer feel "safe" without their mobile and regularly indicate the original reason for purchasing a mobile is to have one in case of an emergency.)They record events for posterity. They make amateur news cameramen out of anyone who is around to witness a world tragedy or provide the final outlet to say goodbyes to loved ones, as the scratchy September 11 phone messages attest. They are part friend and confidant. They store all the phone numbers and pictures of your most cherished friends and family and store memorable messages for an easy walk down memory lane. The flip-side is they can expose all of the above (just ask Shane Warne or Paris Hilton).They are a fashion accessory and, like all modern consumer products, are now extensions of our social status which allow us to be judged by the latest version or the brand we carry. But have we all become slaves to the lure of the marketer's message? Just how much do we really need our mobiles? How healthy is this relationship? Where's the survey on this one?
© 2005 Illawarra Mercury
