Why bother with high-end phones anyway?

The Feedster

It may be from Japan, but a new survey that shows just how little people use the high-end features on their mobile phones is just as relevant anywhere in the world.
The large study of almost 15,000 people last month shows that the most cutting-edge phone features, such as the RFID osaifu keitai e-cash chip and GPS, are used by fewer than 1 person in 5.
While genuinely ground-breaking services are being ignored, more mundane - and perhaps easier to understand - functions are making inroads. The much-maligned (at least by us) QR Code has, so they say, been tried by 52 per cent of respondents.
Even cameras not universal
Given that familiarity seems to make a technology more acceptable, you'd expect everyone to be into the cameras on their phones. Apparently not - the survey found that almost one person in ten who had a cameraphone had never even tried the function.
Lastly, almost 5 per cent of people admitted trying nothing but plain-vanilla voice calls - an intriguing prospect for any phone maker willing to target the market for super-simple and cheap handsets.


More...

__________________

rolfw

This survey matches my experience, I have had a couple of smart phones and an Ipaq and found that most of the time I only used the basic phone functions.

Have now got a Samsung G800 and use the camera quite a bit for taking pictures of installations etc, but otherwise I just use the phone as a phone.

__________________

Rolf If you enjoy our site, you can help support it by wearing our unique branded merchandise, you can do this by clicking on my baseball cap, making a direct donation with Paypal by clicking on the Donation button below, or using our site supporting advertisers, to do this, click on the central image below

2cvbloke

As long as I can Call, Text, maybe have a quick blast on the net for something, I'm happy, but even the internet side isn't that necessary, and there's all kinds of things on my phone which I haven't a clue what they do or why they're there, it just seems to be a waste of memory space, which you can't free up as it's hard-coded into the phone!!!

__________________

mhku

I use GPS on mine. Just wish google maps worked offline.

__________________

jimbo

I've got a samsung which has most features from MP3 and radio to 3G but I don't use them much. Silly isn't it. That's on a vodafone contract but my previous Nokia on PAYG O2 seems to get a better signal.

__________________
Jimbo

dig deep

I use mine as a phone

Nothing else, don´t even try to sms, have no speedy thumb

But my kids,,,, wow

danfreet55

I think you've got to look at it from a professional point of view. There's loads of professions from sales to property development that can benefit from the additional features such as GPS, email on the go - just look at the success of the Blackberry among professionals, and the subsequent addiction!
I've got a HTC Touch Diamond -nice full review here: _http://www.mypocketpcmobile.com/FullReviewHTCTouchDiamond/tabid/247/Default.aspx.
Working in sales means the GPS navigation is the best feature for me and the camera comes in really handy too.

Thanks,
Dan