Research finding from Ericsson ConsumerLab revealed interesting trends in communication patterns, communities, web and the mobile phone.

The Internet is changing. This was the message given out by Vishnu Singh, Regional Manager, South East Asia, Ericsson ConsumerLab at a media briefing held in December in Singapore.

Their research shows that, in many parts of the world, consumers are using their mobile devices as primary Internet access devices. These consumers are also requiring higher bandwidths as much of their Internet excursions take them to social networking sites and other domains that serve up high bandwidth offerings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ericsson ConsumerLab carries out research regularly all over the world. Its primary mission is to ensure that consumer insight is an integral part of Ericsson’s product portfolio, marketing activities and strategy.

Internet activities
In Indonesia and Thailand, two countries in South East Asia where Ericsson ConsumerLab carried out studies in 2008, prevalent Internet activities like emails and instant messaging grew at relatively modest rates. It was bandwidth heavy activities such as downloading music, radio and audio files as well as playing games online that showed growth rates of more than 20%.

It also noted that many young users were using mobile broadband services to carry out their Internet activities. The younger the people it surveyed, the more it found them using mobile broadband for activities such as blogging, viewing photos, uploading movies and playing online games and listening to online radio.

The same pattern is seen on activities commonly related to mobile phones such as ringtones and music and mobile games downloads as well as MMS.

Beyond the young, another group of people are also highly receptive to utilise mobile broadband in their lives. In a study done in 25 countries involving 31,000 people, Ericsson ConsumerLab found that commuters and especially commuters that did not drive are much more likely – as high as double the number of people - to adopt mobile broadband services than those who do not commute.

There were concerns of course and these were mostly to do with online security issues as well as the twin plagues of mobile devices: battery life and physical loss of the mobile device.

Changing communications patterns
Another interesting picture emerges when communications patterns were studied. Looking at tools such as IM, Emails, Blogs, Mobile and Social Networks, the researchers found that people were communicating differently. The role played traditionally by instant messaging is being replaced by social networks. Interestingly, text messaging, once used for close contacts is now more frequently used for communication with sporadic and formal contacts.

Social networks and mobile devices have increased their communications reach and extend all the way from distant contacts to close family. And in another telling sign of changing patterns, emails are no longer prevalent between families and close contacts and are now more often used for sporadic contacts as well as for formal communications. The emerging picture of declining email use is also confirmed by other surveys that show young people are hardly using it as a communications tool.

Future services
The most insightful information shared at the media briefing had to do with key future mobile services that consumers either wanted or were likely to adopt if they were available.

A study carried out in 2007 in US, UK, Italy and China revealed a list of mobile services the respondents were willing to adopt. The top 10 services that consumers were most looking forward to are listed below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1.    Paying Public Transport
2.    Buying From A Vending Machine
3.    Using Mobile Phone As An ID/To Gain Entry
4.    Getting Product Info On Your Mobile Phone
5.    Recharging Phone With E-Money (Online)
6.    Automatic Mobile Phone Backup Service
7.    Positioning Service (Like GPS)
8.    Buying Product In Store
9.    Downloading Coupons And Maps From PC
10.  Sharing A Picture

It appears that consumers are now looking to use the mobile phone for complex activities which simplifies life. Being able to pay for transport and stuff from vending machines and having the means to recharge phones with e-money are all in the top five of the list.

The other popular services eagerly anticipated by consumers have to do with getting relevant information on their phones and positioning services (LBS).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Charting new routes
What does all this mean for mobile operators? Clearly there are opportunities if they can leverage on the valuable insights developed by Ericsson ConsumerLab and similar research outfits.

The figures shared above as well as studies carried out in developing markets where there are many low income mobile users all confirm the same thing: the mobile phone screen can become the main screen for accessing the Internet for a majority of the population.

This may be surprising news for the older generation of people whose web experience started with PCs but for a whole new generation of users, the mobile appears naturally to be the device of choice for accessing the Internet.

These users find it convenient as it’s always with them. Under this scenario, the PC, if at all they have access to that, would then be relegated for background internet access as well as for intensive  internet access purposes. Otherwise, the mobile seems the perfect fit for tasks such as updating social network status, uploading pictures and videos as well as for getting breaking news.

The operators may need to develop new business models of course. The trend may move towards all you can eat data packages with some premium services available as add-ons as well as mobile broadband packages that focus on speed and ease of access. Voice, long the driver of the mobile industry, is on the verge of becoming  a commodity that just happens to be available on a mobile device.