Many High-End Apps Never-Used, Says Accenture Survey

By Reporter Wireless and Mobile News on October 15, 2008 11:24 AM

While there is increasing use of handheld mobile devices throughout the United States, higher-end applications remain vastly under-used by the country's consumers, according to an Accenture survey.

The survey found that:

88 percent of U.S. consumers said they never use their mobile phones or other mobile devices to watch videos.
84 percent said they never use their mobile phones or mobile devices to send email.
79 percent said they never employ them to play "games on the go".

Another new study by AppTrigger also showed low use of high-end cell phone features.

"These survey results point to important missed business opportunities in the mobile handset and social networking arenas," said Kumu Puri, a senior executive with Accenture's Electronics & High Tech practice. "Clearly, many consumers are not widely embracing higher end cell phone applications. And the vast majority of older Americans, in particular, are not inspired by the social networking phenomenon.

Methodology

Internet-based market research company Survey.com, on behalf of Accenture, queried 5,047 U.S. adults in December 2007 to identify the types of consumer electronics that respondents own; how respondents use the devices; and to better understand the technology lifestyles of respondents. More than a dozen devices were covered in the survey, including computers, mobile phones, HDTVs and DVD players. All respondents were at least 18 years of age, and 95 percent have at least a high school education. The data were weighted to make the age groups and genders match the most updated U.S. Census.