New study confirms that mobile applications are on the rise

Hongkong - Mobile e-mail, music downloads and video telephony are the top 3 applications for users of mobile communications. Subscribers are willing to spend an average of between three and seven euros on these and other new applications. Mobile phone users would pay most for mobile television. These are the findings of a worldwide survey of more than 4,200 subscribers.

What mobile applications are the most popular and what are subscribers willing to pay for them? These questions are answered by an international study published by the market research institute psychonomics AG in September 2006.

Downloading music to mobile end-user devices is the top favorite, dropping last year’s leader, mobile e-mail, to second spot. Applications for group communications, such as push to talk, have climbed in the rankings as a whole, above all in the U.S. Another trend is instant messaging: Almost half of those surveyed are interested in this application, with users in India even ranking it as the second most attractive.

Features such as cost control and self-management are crucial for end customers when it comes to using new applications. Compared with previous studies, prepaid users have caught up: They are now more interested in the various applications than customers with a fixed usage contract. Young users aged 16 to 25 and business customers are most receptive for modern lifestyle applications.

About the study:

• Over 4,200 mobile users worldwide were surveyed online or by phone
  
• The countries that took part were Austria, Brazil, China, Germany, France, India, Russia and the U.S.

Siemens Networks GmbH & Co KG
Siemens Networks* engages in a dialog with its customers to create trendsetting communications solutions that help network operators and service providers achieve their business goals. Siemens Networks contributes its innovative strength, worldwide experience and unsurpassed implementation expertise in all areas of voice and data communications. As an innovation leader, Siemens Networks delivers customer value today and prepares customers for tomorrow with trendsetting solutions. Siemens Networks is a fully-owned subsidiary of Siemens AG and operates in about 100 countries.

* Siemens Networks will merge into a 50-50 joint venture with the Nokia Networks Business Group, creating a telecommunications powerhouse that will be called Nokia Siemens Networks. The new company will be a global communications leader with strong positions in key growth segments of the fixed and mobile network infrastructure and services, featuring a world-class fixed-mobile convergence capability. Nokia Siemens Networks is expected to start operations in January 2007, subject to fulfillment of the closing conditions and agreement on a number of detailed implementation steps.