Will the Apple iPhone Catch On?

Even though tons of people have multimedia-capable phones, the research team at In-Stat reports that US wireless subscribers have been slow to actually take advantage of these capabilities. Over a third of respondents to a recent In-Stat wireless subscriber survey have wireless handsets that have MP3, video and radio capabilities, but that doesn’t mean they’re being used. The point of having a souped-up phone is to make best use of all its features, otherwise you’re better of fgetting a more basic model and saving your scratch.

“The growth in multimedia handsets has more to do with operators pushing multimedia handsets to the market, rather than a strong desire by consumers to adopt multimedia handsets or use multimedia services,” says Bill Hughes, In-Stat analyst. “However, the announcement of the Apple iPhone, in January 2007, changes the underlying dynamics of the market, and may give it a significant boost to all wireless carriers if Apple can deliver on the hype.”

Additional In-Stat research found the following:

• The number of respondents to In-Stat’s survey owning a multimedia handset doubled from 2006 to 2007.
• Few respondents without a multimedia mobile phone have an interest in acquiring one.
• More than 80% of respondents with handsets that have the ability to play MP3 tracks rarely, if ever, use this feature.