Networks 3G Revolution Still One User Generation Away -- Gossip Not Technology the Key to European Hearts

Its good to talk - gossip not technology the key to European 3G revolution.

Berlin (PRWEB) March 10, 2005 -- Gossip and not technology is the key to opening European consumer minds to the 3G revolution. According to Berlin IT market researcher Metrinomics, the brave new 3G world being promoted by mobile networks will not succeed for another user generation unless the industry addresses unresolved customer voice and network quality needs.

In the German IT research specialists lastest survey of over 3,000 European mobile phone users, more than half believe that their lives have been enriched by the mobile phone -- 83% consider mobile communication to be so important that they simply couldnt be without their mobile. Moreover, the study of French, German, Italian and British mobile phone users found that 60% use their mobiles purely for communication purposes - with two out of every three mobile phone minutes in Europe spent chatting or sending text messages to friends and family.

Metrinomics Hans Schmolke believes that it is time for a radical re-assessment of current 3G strategies, claiming that the networks shouldnt lose sight of the fact that the mobile phone success story is a communications one first and foremost. Forget technology, European consumers are interested in one thing -- good old-fashioned gossip with their nearest and dearest. Where people used to talk over the garden fence or wave hello to a friend on the street, they now use their mobile phone instead. The networks have failed to grasp that fact. Mobile users would much rather that the communications envelope was pushed further still, as texting was only a stop-gap, and see existing technical network deficiencies finally put to bed."

Taking text messaging as a case in point, Metrinomics believes that both manufacturers and networks would be better placed using UMTS technology to create the next UMTS communications killer app, with parallel communications -- for example, the ability to send emoticons and similar content when talking -- and a range of improved audio formats being one way of piquing current low consumer 3G interest levels.

According to Schmolke, mobile phones are first and foremost a social lifeline in an ever changing world, and the manufacturers and networks shouldnt forget that. Progress is all well and good, but you have to take the consumers with you. The internet did that, 3G is still trying."

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