Half of the Belgian respondents to a survey placed the same application on top of their desiderata lists: movie on demand. The idea of no longer having to rush out to the local video store to rent a movie, is clearly catching on. Ranked second, with 41 per cent, is control of the phone budget for each member of the family. Interactive television shares third place with remote monitoring of one’s home or second residence (both 39 per cent). These are the main conclusions of a survey carried by InSites Consulting on behalf of Alcatel.
The top 5 is rounded out by the application that allows for the remote supervision of persons (e.g. sick family members, elderly people or children) via the telephone and web cameras. Other applications that most respondents find attractive are micropayments via mobile phone (e.g. soft drinks, cinema or parking tickets) and the so-called shared phone service , i.e. a fixed telephone line with one general number, but with a different final digit for each family member, each having their own specific ring tone, answering service and address directory.
While clear differences are noticeable in terms of gender, age or language , it was nevertheless found that the appeal of certain applications depended not so much on these factors as on a number of values and the interest in technology.
Based on these two categories, the sample was divided into five segments, each having a marked preference for one or more of the proposed services. Turbo boost, or the temporary provision of extra bandwidth for downloading heavy files, clearly finds a niche market with the so-called multimedia freaks. Micropayments via mobile phone is particularly appreciated by the mobile generation of young people.
But are Belgians also prepared to pay for all these extra facilities ? A number of them are, especially for those services that make their lives more efficient or more pleasant, but the majority would prefer to pay on a per-use basis instead of paying a monthly subscription fee. As such, they feel they can first try out these applications that are still new to them, so they can form an idea of their usage and then decide whether a fixed monthly fee might be more advantageous.
When asked what device Belgians would take along to a desert island, the PC with internet access wins hands down (68 per cent), followed by the mobile phone (22 per cent) and television (7 per cent). The mobile phone is slightly more popular as companion among women (29 per cent of women go for their mobile phone versus 17 per cent of men), whereas men are fonder of multimedia applications . And although women are slightly more budget-minded, they are generally prepared to pay more for applications that really suit them.
InSites Consulting , a marketing research consultancy, has conducted this market survey in order to chart the current use of applications by Belgian internet users aged between 18 and 55, and to explore the need for sixteen new applications using broadband, mobile or fixed lines. The survey was carried out in March 2003 on a population of 1277 people. The results were subsequently linked to the profile of the respondents via a lifestyle segmentation based on values and technological orientation.
Filipe Samora
2003-05-07
Em Foco – Opinião