BOSTON-Cellular and personal communications services have entered the mainstream U.S. market in earnest, with a presence in 35 percent of all households in the nation, according to the Yankee Group’s recently released “Mobile User Survey.” The wireless penetration rate is up 8 percentage points from 27 percent last year.
However, customers don’t know which brand of phone they are using.
Brand name tied with accessories for last place in the rankings of what consumers consider to be most important when purchasing a wireless handset. Getting the best deal from the carrier was the most important factor, survey respondents said.
The study found that brand awareness is weak among end users, and consumers often are confused by dual-branding between the manufacturer and the carrier on the phone, said the Yankee Group. How users responded to which handsets they bought last year was quite different from the 1997 new user market share, the study said.
Thirty-eight percent of new wireless phone users thought they bought a Motorola Inc. phone, but Motorola’s new user market share for 1997 was actually 26 percent.
L.M. Ericsson’s 1997 market share of 18 percent wasn’t reflected by the only 8 percent of people who thought they bought an Ericsson phone, nor was Audiovox Corp.’s 11-percent market share reflected by the 6 percent who thought they bought an Audiovox phone. Seven percent of new wireless phone users said they didn’t know which brand they purchased.
When making a handset purchase, 13 percent said ease of use is the most important factor, 9 percent thought battery life to be the number-one factor, followed by style and durability with 5 percent each.
“With the increase in competition among manufacturers for mind and market share, building and maintaining brand awareness … will become more important this year as more handset models become available,” said Phillip Redman, program manager of wireless/mobile communications for the Yankee Group.
“1998 will be a critical year for manufacturers to get product on the shelf. With the number of competitors coming to the market, they are going to have to drive costs down in order to compete.”
The Mobile User Survey, in its fifth year, was divided into the “General User Survey,” which was sent to about 1,000 U.S. homes, and the “User-Specific Survey,” which was sent to the homes of 2,000 known wireless users.
