Handset OS More Important than Camera, Bluetooth and Music?
According to new research by Compete Inc., a handset’s operating system is more important than camera, bluetooth, music or email capabilities. Furthermore, people are willing to pay more for a specific handset operating system.
Compete Inc. say…
"As consumers spend more time navigating menus and installing content and programs on their mobile phones, they have become more aware of the role the OS plays in their handset experience"
Initially I found this very surprising. It also seems to go against Symbian’s policy of remaining ‘backstage’ and allowing the phone OEMs to make all the marketing noise. However, when I think deeper, I realise I know people who bought Siemens after Siemens or Nokia after Nokia so that they remained familiar with the phone menus. I have also seen the same people become annoyed when they have found their new Siemens/Nokia menus have indeed changed and they have to unlearn keystrokes.
So, people probably do have a preference for a phone OS because of the user interface (UI). However, it probably tends to be in terms of Nokia vs Siemens vs Motorola rather than Symbian OS vs Windows Mobile vs Proprietary Series 40. Also, most people probably don’t know how different the Nokia Series 40 and 60 UIs really are. Most consumers won’t know that Series 60 is Symbian based while Series 40 is proprietary.
People are really interested in easy-to-use UIs. Symbian don’t produce phone UIs. UIQ, Nokia (and Microsoft) do. Windows Mobile actually has two UIs (Pocket PC and Smartphone).
Handset operating systems don’t necessarily imply a specific UI. Hence, it’s probably rather misleading for Compete Inc to ask users about (and raise the importance of) the OS when consumers will implicitly take this to mean the UI. The outcome of the report should probably be that UIs are important to consumers.
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