Thanks to the great folks at Siemens, I've been included in their press announcements. This was driven in part by some favorable mention that caught their eye. In particular, they were very much on the ball in partnering with BridgePort Networks.

They have a new stuy on mobility out that contains some fascinating information. While not directly VoIP related, with the coming of fixed mobile convergence (and it is coming quickly) we'll see more and more integration of wireless phones into the VoIP space. I thought it would be good to share some of Siemens' findings and thoughts.

---

Siemens Survey: U.S. Mobile Phone Subscribers Ready to Catch Up with the Rest of the World in the Adoption of Advanced Cellular Applications

Mobile e-mail, music and television top the U.S. Mobile Consumer Wish List

BOCA RATON, Fla. — June 5, 2006 — Mobile subscribers in the United States are ready to catch up with their global peers – including closing the gap on the world’s most advanced users in Korea and China – in the adoption of new cellular innovations that make mobile devices sing, play and work harder than ever before, according to more than 5,000 global respondents of a new Siemens Communications Inc. survey.

“While a wide gap remains between the number of sophisticated mobile consumers in the United States versus the rest of the world, the U.S. consumer appetite for future adoption of advanced service features suggests that the mobile technology gap will close in the years ahead,” said Harald Braun, president, Networks Division, Siemens Communications Inc. “U.S. consumers are ready to get additional entertainment and productivity value out of mobile telephones, PDAs and other cellular devices.”

According to the Siemens survey, U.S. and World Demand for Wireless Solutions, topping the U.S. mobile applications wish list are:

• Mobile e-mail services, already used by many U.S. consumers today, to manage both office and private e-mails, calendars and contact lists – 69 percent said they are interested.
• Mobile music services for access to a radio station or to download songs and listen to them in their mobile devices – 56 percent.
• Mobile television services to allow the watching of existing television channels or to enable the downloading and playback of specific video content – 53 percent.

Forty-seven percent of U.S. mobile consumers also expressed interest in enriched voice call services that, as examples, would enable a consumer to share pictures or data while talking on a mobile phone or turn a voice session into a video call using the phone’s camera. Mobile gaming (47 percent), which is also in use by many U.S. consumers today, also tops the wish list, followed by group voice communication (47 percent) and mobile file sharing (44 percent) applications.

Not only do U.S. consumers have an appetite for more advanced mobile applications, they are also willing to pay, on average, 10 percent more each month to add new services.

Closing the Mobile Applications Gap
While 21 percent of the rest of the world already uses mobile devices to access advanced entertainment applications such as downloading music, video streaming or gaming, only 11 percent of U.S. consumers have used such features – a gap of nearly two-to-one. However, 52 percent of U.S. mobile users say they are likely to purchase such services in the future compared to 62 percent of non-U.S. consumers – closing the usage gap to 20 percent.

A similar scenario exists for the use of newer productivity-focused mobility features. About 15 percent of non-U.S. consumers have used advanced mobile productivity tools (mobile e-mail, enriched voice services and file sharing) compared to 11 percent of U.S. consumer – a 36 percent gap. Looking ahead, 64 percent of non-U.S. consumers versus 52 percent of U.S. mobile customers want such services in the near future – a 23 percent difference.

The world outside of the United States, especially the Asian mobile applications market, is probably more than two years ahead, Braun said. Although the United States is catching up, much of the nation remains without 3G coverage, a delay that has a lot to do with immense geographical size of the country and a continued reliance on wired network infrastructures that have yet to be fully monetized.

The United States, a first adopter of mobile technologies, is now playing catch-up with countries like Japan that did not fully enter the fray until after the turn of the century. When countries like Japan began mobile network build-outs, they began with more advanced foundations of next-generation 3G networks.

“In many ways, the United States is paying the price of being an early adopter,” Braun said. “But the U.S. market still has the potential to be one of the largest mobile markets in the world.”

About the Survey
The Siemens® LifeWorks survey, U.S. and World Demand for Wireless Solutions, was conducted to identify global mobile application trends. More than 5,300 mobile communication subscribers were surveyed online and via phone during November. About 1,000 U.S. mobile communication subscribers were surveyed. Other countries surveyed included Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, Italy, Korea and Russia.

Siemens graciously provided some data above and beyond the survey for me to review.

Overview of Survey Findings

• User satisfaction is high, but could be better.
• The most attractive applications for U.S. consumers are mobile e-mail, mobile music and mobile TV
• Overall, the interest in the different applications is lower than in other countries, but the gap is closing and willingness to pay is higher
• Current usage of mobile e-mail and mobile gaming is highest
• Being entertained is an important driver for application usage
• U.S. users are ready to pay an additional 10% on top of their current bill for using innovative mobile applications
  

Description of Applications
Mobile TV … use your mobile phone to watch TV. This means that you can either watch what’s currently running on existing TV channels, or you can actively select specific programs
Mobile Music … use your mobile phone to listen to a radio station, listen to music charts or download a song directly to your mobile device and then listen to it.
Mobile Gaming … use your mobile phone to play games on your own or “multiplayer” – classic board games or fast, audio and video animated games
Mobile E-mail … manage your e-mails, calendar, and contacts while being on the move. When an e-mail is received at your office or private e-mail address, you can see it instantly on your mobile device.
File Sharing … share any files you have on your device with somebody else via your mobile devices … either send the file to the other person or save it to a server space reserved for you, where the other person can easily access the files you like to share.
Group Communication … communicate with a group of people at the same time … set up a voice communication within the group, and let other persons participate in the contents you are currently watching or listening to, by simply pushing a button.
Enriched Voice Call … use additional services while talking on the phone … add contents to the call, or, by switching on your phone’s camera easily turn the call into a video call.

Siemen's noted a broad target interest group for Mobile TV. Key points included:

• About half of all respondents are interested in using Mobile
• Overall, the application seems to be attractive to a very heterogenous target group
• Interest is slightly higher among business users and men

High Interest in Streaming: “Live TV” and “TV on demand”

• More than half of all users in the US are interested in Mobile TV
• Interest is especially high regarding streaming applications like “live TV” and “TV on demand”

Mobile E-Mail – Not Just for Business

• Interest in Mobile E-Mail is high overall, but even higher among users aged 16-45 years
• The application is especially desired by business users
• No difference between prepaid and postpaid users
• The survey shows that e-mail is an application that must not only be targeted to business users
• The share of users willing to use it primarily for private purposes is very high!

Overall it's a fascinating study with an eye toward IMS and fixed mobile convergence. Another strong indicator that Siemens is a company to watch as the technologies mature.

Technorati Tags: Siemens, U.S. and World Demand for Wireless Solutions, report, study market trends