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ABI Research has just released a major (and therefore pretty pricey) study called “Wireless Subscriber Profiles and  Preferences”, all about what elements people need (or think they need) in their mobile phones and which ones they don’t really use.

The following is from the brief in ABI’s Press release

Digital camera functionality, Bluetooth connectivity, and music/radio playback on mobile phones are the top three features that consumers consider essential for the next mobile phone they will purchase, according to a recent ABI Research survey of 1,402 current wireless subscribers in seven countries. The desire for camera phones with 2+ megapixels leads the pack with 47% of consumers listing this feature as a “must have,” followed by Bluetooth at 34% and music/FM radio functionality at 32%.

However, says Clint Wheelock, vice president and chief research officer, “Our survey results identified some surprising differences between markets. Camera phones, for example, were more than twice as important for consumers in Taiwan versus those in the US. Similarly, Bluetooth is considered essential by mobile subscribers in Western Europe and Taiwan, but penetration of this feature is very low in Japan and South Korea, so it’s of little importance to consumers in those countries.”

Other key findings from ABI Research’s global wireless consumer survey are as follows:

– “It’s still a voice-centric world,” says Wheelock. Consumers across all mature markets still choose their mobile operator based on “the basics”: price, friends/family on the same network, and network coverage.

– The three most common features that subscribers have on their current mobile phones are: games (64%), Internet access (61%), and 2+ megapixel cameras (58%).

– Games and Internet access are also high on the list of features that subscribers have on their phones, but never use. Adds Wheelock, “Many mobile data and multimedia services are failing to reach the mainstream not because they’re unavailable, but because they fail to provide a satisfactory user experience and pricing model for most consumers.”

– The handset features that are least likely to be regarded as essential are: Wi-Fi, mobile TV, and games.

For me, likely the features I use most often on my Moto Q are the email features, internet access and writing short texts using the word processor software. Games I use very little, and almost never use the camera except on vacation. As for Mobile TV, I have never seen the need or purpose in the feature. Bluetooth I seldom use but it is nice to have for the occasional sync or file transfer, but as for WiFi, I would love to have it and if another good QWERTY phone came along that had WiFi built in, I would switch from my beloved Q.

What about you? Are you typical, according to this study? What features do you need in a phone, and which can you do without?

Zealot (469 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook

By day a department manager and writer for a major network device vendor...by night Zealot stalks the mean magnetic streets, striking fear into the hearts of bandwidth abusers and theme park mascots. Zealot has been involved with mobile devices for more than a decade now, starting off with dumb phones, moving to PDAs and then to smartphones, notebooks and netbooks with the odd PMP thrown in. Most of his mobile time currently is spent on a Treo Pro, Zune HD, Thinkpad T61, Gigabyte M912M or a Hackintoshed Compaq Mini 704. He proudly groks the Geek community and considers himself a Neo Maxi Zune Dweebie (thanks Will Wheaton!).