GetJar conducted a phone-buying poll across the 130 countries in the GetJar network,
asked respondents to rank a list of 10 phone features by order of
importance including and were then asked to rank each of those features on a five-level scale as
'unimportant', 'less important', 'important', 'very important' and
'extremely important'.
Here are the findings for U.S. users:
- U.I. -U.S. participants revealed user interface to be the most important
handset feature with 20% of total respondents ranking it highest and
67% of those rating it as "extremely important. - Brand - After user interface,
17% of U.S. respondents ranked phone brand as the second most important
purchasing consideration. - Content -An unprecedented 14% ranked content
that comes with the phone as their top consideration. The majority of
that group (60%) said that content embedded on a handset is "extremely
important" to them, demonstrating Americans appetite for mobile
content. The poll also revealed the preference for mobile content to be
a world-wide trend, with 69% of all global GetJar users stating the
content embedded on the phone was "extremely important" or "very
important." - Price was the fourth most important for U.S. users
- Size was the fifth most important factor for U.S. users.
"While the phone's user interface and brand prove to be dominant
factors for deciding which handset consumers choose, the big change in
consumer preference we see within this survey is the importance they
are placing on content," said Ilja Laurs, founder and CEO of GetJar
Networks. "With nearly five years experience distributing mobile
applications to consumers around the world, GetJar brings quality
content directly to consumers in the easiest and quickest way possible.
GetJar generates over 22 million downloads per month, so we know how
important content is to consumers, and these poll results indicate that
they also want top quality content in place when choosing a new mobile
phone."
Additional GetJar "What's Important on a Phone" poll key findings:
- Globally an overwhelming majority of 71% stated they are planning
on getting a new phone this year; 26% saying they were planning to
purchase a new phone in the next 10 days - Across the 130 countries
polled, the No. 1 buying consideration for a new phone was brand with
28% ranking it as their top feature. The U.S. was the only country
where brand was not the most popular consideration (17%) - The No. 2 new phone factor globally was user interface, with 17% choosing it as their top feature
- 69% of all consumers polled for this survey said content embedded on
the phone was "either extremely" important or "very important." - 4% ranked touchscreen as the most important phone feature
Research Methodology
GetJar conducted a quantitative survey on the GetJar network -
during the week of the Mobile World Congress 2009, the world's largest
exhibition for the mobile industry. The company polled 1,000
respondents across 130 countries. The primary demographics of the
sample were 75% male, with 79% of respondents under 25 years old.