Mobile set-up too complicated for most users

A survey of mobile phone users in the UK and the USA says most people get annoyed when they set up a new handset. 85% of users said they were frustrated by the difficulty of getting a new phone working, with 61% saying it was as challenging as moving bank accounts. The survey, by mobile device management software company Mformation, also revealed that 95% of people said they would be more likely to use new features if the initial set-up was easier. Most people expected to take 15 minutes to set their phone up but found the actual time was around an hour. [Sources: BBC News; Computerworlduk.com]

Smartphones are driving customer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction with mobile phones is increasing in the USA as smartphones become more popular. The link between the two bas been made by J.D. Power and Associates, which has just published its latest Wireless Mobile Phone Evaluation Study. They measured customer satisfaction by looking at design, operation, features, durability and battery life. Their results showed that average prices have risen because of the increased popularity of smartphones and other highly-featured phones. Customers are also spending more per month - yet overall satisfaction has improved significantly and is higher among younger handset owners who are more inclined to own feature-rich phones. [Press release]

A quarter of mobile phone features never used

A study by wireless support specialist WDSGlobal says a quarter of mobile phone features are never discovered by users - and only 20% of a mobile phone’s features are ever used regularly. Most people struggled to name more than half-a-dozen features, with regular usage generally just voice, text messaging, contacts, camera and alarm clock. The company said users felt overwhelmed, blaming poor user interfaces and complex menu structures. [Press release]

Mobile customers want style above other features

Consumer review website Reevoo.com has asked 31,000 mobile phone customers to say what they liked most and least about their new mobile phones. The top three likes were looks, size and camer - while battery life, usability and software were the main reasons for disliking a phone. (Full details are online at Reevoo.com's blog). [Press release]

And the favourite mobile phone feature is... text

A survey of US mobile phone users (commissioned by Access Systems Americas and conducted by Amplitude Research) shows that customers buying a new handset rate text messaging as the most important feature. 73% said text was the most important feature, followed by a camera (67%), email (63%) and the internet (61%). Battery life (0.5%) and voice activation (0.33%) were towards the bottom of the list. [Press release via Yahoo]

A third of mobile game downloads don't work

Earlier this month we heard that just 8.8% of customers in the USA and Europe were playing games they'd downloaded to their mobile phone - and last week we discovered that 50% of all application downloads failed to complete successfully. Now comes news that a third of mobile game downloads in the UK fail to work owing to compatibility issues - and only 15% of mobile gamers had never experienced a non-working game. The figures, which come from application developer GetJar, claim that over £29 million is spent every year on games that customers never play. The company blamed insufficient testing for the high failure rate. [Source: VNUnet.com]

Usability is slowing the adoption of new mobile services

Mobile data usability specialists Olista have published a report on the problems encountered by mobile users when accessing mobile content. Their findings are based on information over eleven million mobile users across five different mobile operators in the last quarter of 2007. The overall findings indicate that usability rather than price is slowing the adoption of new mobile data services. Over 70% of customers who signed up to content bundles didn't use any mobile content, which suggests that ease-of-use rather than price was the main factor for these users. 30% of users downloaded the same content over and over again, 50% of all application downloads failed to complete successfully while over 60% of video and music downloads were being made from sites that weren't operated by the networks themselves. In addition, 85% of mobile TV users abandoned the service after the first viewing. [Source: Cellular-News.com]

Vodafone and 3 lead the UK's mobile portals

A new research report from Strategy Analytics called "UK Mobile Portals: One Click Access and Simple Layout Enhance Experience" has taken a look at the mobile internet portals operated by the UK's networks. 3's Planet Three and Vodafone's Vodafone Live! both achieved a 4-star rating (presumably out of a maximum 5 stars) for their overall portal experience, with O2, Orange and T-Mobile all receiving a 3-star rating. 3 and Vodafone performed particularly well for portal discoverability, while Vodafone was commended for its News & Info service and 3 for its Mobile TV offering. Strategy Analytics said Full Track Music and Games downloads were significant areas of weakness in terms of user satisfaction across all networks.

Specify your own mobile phone

The curiously-named zzzPhone.com has just launched, offering individually-built customised mobile phones that are created by an American company with assembly plants in China. They claim to provide unlocked, tri-band phones at factory-direct low prices yet with more features than the Nokia N95 and Apple iPhone. Apparently the three 'z's in zzzPhone represent the Chinese characters for 'personal', 'exclusive', and 'expert': ZiJi de, Zhuan You de and Zhuan jia de.

60% of UK mobile users just talk and text

Research by SNAPin Software has found that 60% of UK mobile phone users only call & text on their handsets and have no interest in other services. 29% of people said they were put off because they were confused about charging, while 18% couldn't be bothered to read the manual. Among those people who did use other features, the camera was the most popular choice - used by around 30% of them. Internet and email use was just 12%, and navigation was 3%. The researchers contacted almost 2,000 adults in December last year. Meanwhile in Japan, the communications ministry says it supports a proposed exam for mobile phone specialists who'd be able to explain complicated functions and tariffs. [Sources: vnunet.com; 160characters.org; yahoo.com]