Users warm to music on their phones
13 October 2006
Telecoms Special Features
Mobile music is most popular among users in the UK, with 3% of the mobile user base in the country listening to music on mobile phones in July. The UK has a higher rate of music consumption using mobile phones than France, Germany, Spain and the U.S., according to a study conducted by research firm M-Metrics.
The firm surveyed 12,462 users in France, 15,070 in Germany, 11,429 in Spain, 14,842 in the UK and 34,006 in the U.S. It found that more people in the UK use mobile devices to listen to music on the go and that methods of obtaining the music vary. Some people use a sideloaded memory card and some download music directly to their handsets, the survey found (see fig.).
According to M-Metrics, the sheer number of mobile-music-enabled handsets on the market today is one of the major barriers to consumption, although it says that many terminals are becoming easier to use, which should boost consumption.
"We are ... seeing an influx of music-friendly devices on the market, with removable storage and better interfaces for accessing songs, as well as consumer education by the operators, all of which will foster growth in the sector," says Seamus McAteer, a senior analyst at M-Metrics.
The firm does not keep track of downloads to music-oriented terminals, such as Apple's iPod or Microsoft's forthcoming Zune device, preferring instead to focus on the growing availability of music-enabled mobile phones. Its study also examines which devices are most popular in each market, which includes surprisingly few Sony Ericsson Walkman phones.
Nokia rules the roost in four of the five markets examined.
In Germany, the vendor's 6630 tops the list of best-selling music phones, followed by the N70 and 6680. In France, the Nokia 6680 prevailed, with Sony Ericsson's V600i the second-biggest seller, followed by Samsung's D500. In Spain, Nokia's 6230 is top of the pile, followed by the 6630 and Samsung's Z140. The Nokia N70 leads in the UK, followed by the 6280 and 6230i.
Only in the U.S. - where Nokia is playing catch-up with Motorola in terms of overall device sales - does a non-Nokia unit top the list. LG Electronics' VX8100 is first, followed by Samsung's MM-A900 and SCH-A950.
Music downloads dominate M-Metrics' study, but the firm has also released figures relating to the number of users purchasing and downloading ring tones. The U.S. has the highest percentage of users who bought a ring tone in July - 10.4% - with Spain second at 8.9% and Germany third with 6.6%. About 6.2% of users in France and 5.4% in the UK purchased a tone that month.
Ring-tone downloads follow a similar pattern. In the U.S., 4.8% of those questioned downloaded a tone in July, followed by 4.5% in Spain, 3.1% in Germany, 3% in France and 2.2% in the UK.
| Mobile music consumption, July (% of user base) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Germany | France | Spain | UK | U.S. | |
| Used phone as music player | 1.4 | 0.6 | 2.8 | 3.0 | 0.7 |
| Listened to sideloaded music | 1.1 | 0.4 | 1.5 | 1.3 | 0.4 |
| Listened to downloaded music | 0.4 | 0.2 | 1.7 | 2.0 | 0.3 |
| Downloaded music | 0.3 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 1.5 | 0.2 |
| Source: M-Metrics | |||||
Other articles in this Special Feature:
- Telecoms.com's must reads on future mobile handsets
- Coping with handset slowdown
- Mobile Handset Vendors say goodbye to double digit growth from '07
- Michael Carroll ponders the handset name game
- Symbian continues to increase model numbers
- Vendors look beyond music devices to broader value chain
- Michael Carroll questions mobile TV handsets' size
