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We are please to announce that our first comprehensive end-user survey results are in. We collected data from mobile subscribers five countries; China, India, Russia, Brazil and the UK to examine usage patterns for existing and hypothetical data services. While this is a work in progress which will be release in its entirety in the next few weeks, there are some interesting findings that cursory examination has shed light on. One area we wanted our interviewees to provide insight on were the different ways in which subscribers are made aware of data services by their carriers. The question was asked:
‘How has your wireless service provider tried to educate you or sell you wireless data / internet services? What is the primary way you have learned about the availability of these services and how to use them?
Several options were provided:
- Service provided conducted face to face sales
- Service provider called me on my cellphone
- Service provider sent SMS to my cellphone
- Traditional advertising by service provider (magazines, billboard, TV, etc.)
- Information that came with my handset
- I have not received much information about these services or how to use them
We were very surprised by the number of interviewees who responded that they had not received much information about wireless data services or how to use them. Even more surprising was that the most developed markets (Brazil, Russia and the U.K.) have the least educated consumers. An initial hypothesis would be that carriers operating in these mature markets are somewhat complacent about the level of product awareness by their subscribers, when in fact there would appear to be a clear opportunity of if not a necessity to educate subscribers about mobile data and internet services.
Source: Pyramid Research
Further analysis of the data reveals which mobile operators are the best (and worst) at educating their subscribers. These and other key findings will be made available in the ‘BRIC Mobile Data Adoption Study’, released in late October.
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