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Our Bureau

New Delhi , May 6

MOBILE users are willing to spend on an average Rs 3,000 more to upgrade their handsets to have features such as digital camera, FM radio and speaker phones, according to the IDC India Mobile Handsets Study 2005.

At present, the average amount spent on the handset is Rs 4,500

"Most handset vendors are following the right communication mix by using these aspired features to sway the target audience," Mr Parijat Chakraborty, Head of User Research and Communication Research in IDC India, said.

There is growing demand for value-added services such as MMS, WAP, GPRS, and Tri-band , but any mass appeal is yet to develop for them.

"The hype around these services is coming down , primarily due to high service cost and low relevance. However, among specific segments, these services are exhibiting high to very high demand. The handset marketers need to focus on segmented communication approach for these niche segments," said Mr Chakraborty.

Handset features that are seldom used by users are reminder, scheduler and organiser.

The study also reveals some interesting facts on the handset-usage pattern. The handset is used for one hour in a day on an average for voice communication. The average number of received in a day is 12 while the average number of calls made is 8.

It indicates the continuation of the dominance of landline-to-mobile calls vis-à-vis the other-way, as observed in previous studies as well.

The unsolicited calls from call centres for selling services and goods are also responsible for the higher number of incoming calls.

Mobile users send four SMS a day on an average, while the number of SMS received is higher, at six a day. The number of incoming SMS is high due to number of messages from mobile service providers giving information about various downloads such as ring tones and contests.

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