ABI Research: Camera, Bluetooth and music preferred consumers’ features on mobile phones

According to a recent ABI Research survey, digital camera, Bluetooth, and music/radio playback are the top three features that consumers consider essential for the next mobile phone purchase.

The desire for camera phones with 2 or more megapixels leads the pack with 47% of consumers listing this feature as a “must have,” followed by Bluetooth at 34% and music/FM radio functionality at 32%.

Other key findings from ABI Research’s survey:

• Consumers across all mature markets still choose their mobile operator based on the such basics as price, friends/family on the same network, and network coverage.
• The three most common features that subscribers have on their current mobile phones are games (64%), Internet access (61%), and 2+ megapixel cameras (58%).
• Games and Internet access are also high on the list of features that subscribers have on their phones, but never use.
• The handset features that are least likely to be regarded as essential include Wi-Fi, mobile TV, and games.

ABI surveyed 1,402 current wireless subscribers in seven countries (the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan) for its research “Wireless Subscriber Profiles and Preferences.”