According to study by mobile market research house M:Metrics, June 2006, British mobile users are more likely to use their cellphones’ so called “social networking” applications – essentially such as wireless data applications like uploading video, using chat, uploading a photo and/or accessing a dating service – than their counterparts in France, Germany or the United States. Only 7.2 percent of German cellphone users, 6.7 percent of U.S. users and 6.5 percent of French users had done so.
The other findings of the study are:
• Subscribers to certain carriers in each country were more likely to use the data-based services. In the U.K., wireless operator 3 scored 17.4 percent, way above the national average of 10.1 percent.
• In the United States, T-Mobile wireless operator came in with 10-percent penetration, well-above the 6.7 percent average for all carriers.
• Similarly, in Germany, operator O2 saw 10.6 percent of its user base tapping into at least one of the applications.
• In France, the wireless operator SFR topped the list, but by a small margin of 7.1 percent compared with 6.5 percent for the country as a whole.
• In Germany, among a list of applications, 79.8 percent of cellular users had sent a text message in April, while 6.2 percent used personal e-mail and 3.1 percent used work e-mail.
• In the U.K., the numbers were 84.6 percent for text messages, and between 6.7 percent/3 percent for personal/work e-mail, while for France the total numbers were 69.4 percent and 5.4 percent/1.9 percent.
• In the United States, only 35 percent sent a text message, but personal/work e-mail figures were higher at 6.9 percent/4 percent.
Source: Telecom Web http://www.telecomweb.com/news/wbf/charts/17327.html
