Who rules this segment of the market? MW interviewed 20 teenagers and they spilled the beans on their favourite phones.

 

The interview was done at random and we collected information from teens ranging from 14 to 19. What they said may not be really new but phone manufacturers should take notice as it seems like this segment is being dominated by a single brand. You might have guessed it right or you might be way off mark. The brand that appears to have got it right turned out to be Sony Ericsson.


Favourite brand
Sony Ericsson is the perennial favourite among the young ones, with 14 out of 20 voting it as their favourite brand. Some of the respondents were already using this brand of phones with a small minority being stuck with hand-me-downs.

According to Taraz who is 14, he likes Sony Ericsson because of its music functions and branding. Looks like the Walkman branding was the smartest move from the Swedish Japanese giant, as all the respondents voted it as their favourite brand for this reason alone.

Four other respondents chose Nokia for its user friendliness and cited that it was the only brand that they were familiar with. One chose Motorola and the other chose Samsung.

“I like Nokia because I have been using this brand for the longest time,” said Laavinia who is 15. But Hafzan, 16 chose Nokia because of its high quality material.

Grace Wong, 19 stated Samsung as her top brand because of its classy clamshell design and fulfils her basic requirement of features while Joolee, 15 likes Motorola for its stylish design.


Favourite design
In our short, unofficial survey, we also found that candy bar is not a great hit, other form factors such as clamshell, swivel and sliders are more popular. This could be due to the fact that the candy bar design is often associated with the older generation, sort of idiot proof design. There’s always the perennial issue with young people about using the same brands or models with their parents when it comes to clothes, shoes and now apparently, phones too.
Camie Lee, 19 said that her ultimate phone should have an extraordinary design to set her apart from others and it should also be small and slim. Her friend, Debbie Chang, 19 prefers a 180 degrees swivel design or a clamshell.

 

 

Must-have features
Here is a section that we guessed right. The top three features that our interviewees love are a good quality camera, decent music support and a large memory with an expansion card slot. Other features that they liked were 3G, good speakers and video playback.

Seeing their phones as an extension of themselves, they often use it as an MP3 player to store the latest songs, a high megapixel camera to take pictures of themselves or friends all the time and of course a large memory space to fit all that.

We bet whoever that comes up with a phone that has all these features and yet keep it affordable will win over this market segment.

Budget
Now, we know they don’t have the cash but that doesn’t stop them from changing their phones. On average their budget for a new phone is around RM1000 to RM1500. This usually falls under the mid range category of phones.
Phones in this category tend to have average features across the board, for example, 2 megapixel camera, EDGE connectivity and simple music features.
The interviewees also told us that they changed their phone often. Reasons for changing are mostly spoilt or lost phones. Some change their phones every year on average. This means they go through phones pretty fast and definitely good news for the manufacturers although we are not sure if parents are all that happy about this.
Hafiz, 16 has a new phone every year and has a budget of RM3000, allowing him to buy just about any phone he wishes. On the other hand Sheng Wei, 16 wants a new phone every 2 years but only has RM1300 to blow. Nevertheless having a budget that high means they can afford smartphones, but most appeared to be more interested in phones that have superb camera and music features.

Peer influence
Among the teens, it is generally accepted that peer opinion is important. When it comes to seeing movies, listening to music and other lifestyle stuff, the influence of their peers play a major role. But apparently this is not so when it comes to buying mobile phones. Much to our surprise, 11 out of 20 said they are not influenced by their friends when it comes to buying a phone. However they agreed that they avoid having the same phone as their parents. That seems to be a fashion faux pas when it comes to owning a mobile phone.

What phone dealers have to say
We also spoke to a few phone dealers in town. According to Jeff Yeong, assistant sales manager for DynaCommunications in KLCC, most of their teenage customers are interested in the Sony Ericsson Walkman series, particularly the Sony Ericsson W580i and W880i.

“They tend to look for music phones and cameras that are at least 2 megapixel. Usually they don’t mind spending between RM800 to RM1500 on a phone,” he said.

That was about the same response we got from Lee Choon Kiat, retail supervisor in Latest Communications in Sungai Wang Plaza.

“They want 3.2 megapixel camera, music features and slide designs. Our hot selling items are the Sony Ericsson W850i for its design and music features and the Nokia 6120 because it is a cheap 3G phone costing about RM1199,” he shared.

Another salesperson, Ken from The Gadget Shop in Low Yat Plaza said that their bestselling phone is the Nokia N73 and also the Sony Ericsson K810i because it has 3G, good camera, memory card slot and decent music features. Most of his young customers are willing to spend up to RM1500 for those features.