Friday May 26, 2006
Mobile music in demand
By WONG LI ZA
LAST year, over one trillion text messages were sent via mobile phones worldwide.
According to international market research group GfK, global sales of mobile phones will touch one billion this year. In 2005, the sales of mobile phones worldwide were 812 million, an increase of 18% over 2004.
The mobile phone is the most common electronics device in the world and considered the fourth window of content after television, the big screen and the personal computer.
With rapid technological advancements, sophisticated features have been included into this lifestyle device, from camera and music to broadcast television.
The Japanese market was also the first to see the advent of the wallet phone. These handsets, embedded with special chips, can be used to buy a soda from a vending machine, purchase groceries or train tickets, and even act as house keys.
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Sony Ericsson’s J100 is great for voice and text messages. |
While India is also another fast-growing market, China remains the envy of companies worldwide.
There are 409 million mobile phone users in China as at end March, with about five million new subscribers every month in the first quarter.
There are more mobile users than landline customers in China. During the recent Chinese New Year season, 2.7 billion SMS-es were sent.
China Mobile, the bigger of two operators in China, currently has about 250 million subscribers.
With increasing subscribers worldwide, mobile content development has also generated much excitement.
Informa, in its Mobile Industry Outlook 2006 survey, found that handset vendors believe mobile music will be the content that will create the most interest this year, followed by mobile TV, e-mail and mobile games.
President of China Mobile Wang Jian Zhou said that in China, the total revenue from mobile music last year surpassed that of the traditional music industry.
Wang was one of the many keynote session speakers at the recent 3GSM World Congress held in Barcelona, Spain, from Feb 13-16.
However, Informa principal analyst for mobile content Jessica Sandin said that big revenues are still coming from personalisation, such as ringtones and wallpapers, rather than content.
“Currently, it seems like mobile content still needs to be driven by brands and events outside the phone. So, content linked to popular TV series, for example, has a greater chance of succeeding.”
Another point to note is that it will still take time before mobile TV or music becomes mass market, one reason being that penetration of music- and mobile TV-capable phones is still limited.
And to make mobile TV a success, content, image and sound quality as well as good service delivery have to be ensured.
Meanwhile, higher quality and capacity music-enabled phones are continuously being rolled out by handset manufacturers.
Mike Pauwels, senior manager of global product marketing with Sony Ericsson, believed mobile music still has a bright future despite the advent of mobile TV.
“We’ve just started with (mobile) music. Music and imaging will still be a big focus for 2006,” he said at the Congress.
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Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications’s Mike Pauwels. |
The company launched its sixth Walkman phone, the W950, at the Congress. As of December 2005, the company has sold over three million such phones.
“I would say 2006 is music, high quality imaging and also e-mail and Internet,” reiterated Pauwels.
Meanwhile, competing manufacturers continue to churn out advanced smart phones, largely aimed at the business consumer.
Wikipedia defines a smart phone as any electronic handheld device that integrates the functionality of a mobile phone, personal digital assistant or other information appliance.
However, these phones have been found to be too complex to use and the number of subscribers using 3G technology has been lower than expected, one reason due to the high cost of such mobile phones.
According to a survey based on 2,000 consumers conducted by YouGov, a Britain-based polling company, the majority of British consumers are finding mobile services increasingly confusing and issues around ease-of-use are still holding them back from buying and using 3G handsets and services.
“We have devices that can do it all, but we also have devices that are pretty targeted in terms of application, such as messaging and music. In all this, we try to create ease of use in the different purposes,” said Pauwel.
However, he admitted that 70% of features used on a phone across the world still comprises voice and text.
What are consumer demands in Asian markets like?
“I think the whole of Asia (market) is very advanced; especially Indonesia and also Malaysia, where anything from high-end to low-end handsets is being sold.
“Customers look for ‘emotional’ design products, designs which they immediately fall in love with. At the time they buy it, it’s an iconic design and they look for designs that don’t look cheap.
“Customers know very well what they want when they go into a retail shop. They are well-educated on features and on what a phone can do,” said Pauwels.
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