Can’t Get No Satisfaction

Advanced models of cell phones increasingly are on consumers’ shopping lists and the iPhone and BlackBerry are the beneficiaries, according to ChangeWave’s latest consumer survey.

Among respondents who said they plan to buy a new cell phone in the next six months, the Apple iPhone (17%) remains the top choice. However, the RIM BlackBerry is a close second (15%), and shows the most momentum going forward.

On the downside, 1-time market dominator Motorola (11%) declined another 4 points in terms of future planned purchases.

The survey also found Apple maintains a big lead in customer satisfaction (72% of srespondents indicated they were Very Satisfied) compared to the other major manufacturers, with RIM (55%) a strong second.

Cell Phone Satisfaction Rating Customers Who Say They Are Very Satisfied With Their Current Cell Phone

Source: ChangeWave Research

Clipping Coupons

According to Cellfire, mobile coupons and discount offers remain the top mobile marketing incentive for consumers. Mobile coupon usage has increased by 119% over the last six months at the mobile coupon company. Other key clips include:

• California tops the list of areas with the highest per capita usage of mobile coupons
• 70% of mobile coupon redemptions were from shoppers under 34 years old
• Redemption by consumers over 34 years old tripled in the last six months and now represents 30% of mobile coupon users
• Majority of discounts were redeemed on Tuesdays, Sundays, Wednesday
• Top cities in America that are the heaviest mobile coupon users: Sacramento, Calif.; Dallas; San Francisco; Atlanta and Monterey, Calif.

Hurry Up/Slow Down
Mobile handset shipments from manufacturers with headquarters in China reached 229 million units for 2007, representing a 76.2% annual growth rate from 130 million in 2006. However, this rate of growth will slow considerably in 2008, dropping to about 19.7% to reach 274 million units, according to iSuppli Corporation.

Source: iSuppli

There are two main drivers, according to Kevin Wang, senior analyst, China research for iSuppli. First, domestic demand drove a continuous increase thanks to first-time buyers and replacement sets, and second, the domestic OEMs such as Huawei and ZTE doubled their export shipments.

Go Green & Mobile Already 
“Landline offices phones are simply a waste,” said Marie Wold, president and CFO of OnRelay. Instead, she advocates that enterprises go mobile and cites how it will be good for the environment. For instance, Wold says an enterprise deployment of 10,000 IP extensions includes a large hidden cost of LAN switches, routers, cabling and power supplies required to support the IP voice traffic. Of the staggering $15.8 million total cost of the IP telephony deployment, 80% is related to the desk phones and corresponding LAN upgrades. She claims most, if not all, employees can manage their office communications equally well or better with just their mobiles.

The electronic waste equivalent for this unnecessary infrastructure is astounding:

• 103.61 million pounds of solid waste - the weight of a World War II battleship
• 932,056 miles of cabling - enough cable to stretch to the moon and back

Go Figure

CTIA figures provided to the FCC in January.

$9.71B
The wireless industry’s 6‑month incremental capex in operational systems as of June 2007, resulting in a total cumulative capex in operational systems of more than $233 billion (not including billions more paid to the federal treasury for spectrum licenses).

>150
Number of wireless companies in the United States that provide service to more than 243 million customers as of June 2007.

 15%
Percent of wireless subscribers in the United States that use prepaid or pay‑as‑you‑go plans, without signing contracts.

 13.6%
Percent of American households that are now wireless‑only.

210M
Number of people that have access to high-speed networks.