Market research reaffirms wireless subscriber interest in new cellphone messaging services

Comverse, the supplier of value-added service solutions to mobile and fixed-line operators, has released the results of research conducted in four countries that demonstrate strong consumer interest in using new enhanced messaging and infotainment services.

Comverse makes extensive use of end-user market research to determine how best to create services that attain maximum mass-market attractiveness.

The current research was conducted by MORPACE International in Germany, Taiwan, the UK and the US. Study participants experienced demos of the new services and then responded to surveys designed to measure interest in using these services.

New applications made possible by integrating voice, data and services for 2.5/3G networks underwent consumer testing in selected countries around the world.

The test groups experienced four of the new Comverse InSight services:

* Multimedia mobile e-mail;

* Record and send;

* Visual voicemail; and

* Voicemail infotainment.

The results of the multi-national cross section of respondents (from Germany, Taiwan, US and UK) demonstrate a compelling market case for the new services:

* 76% of respondents exhibited interest in using multimedia e-mail services. Additional interest was expressed in being able to open attachments on the handset, such as pictures, photos, graphics, videos, Word documents, music, spreadsheets and presentations such as PowerPoint.

* 94% of respondents would use record and send to compose and direct voice messages. Many respondents compare record and send favourably to the SMS text messaging experience.

* 72% of respondents said they were "interested" in using visual voicemail. Specifically cited anticipated benefits included the ease of using a visual interface, the ability to listen to and manage messages in any chosen order and single-keypress "reply" and "forward" functionality.

* 95% of respondents expressed interest in receiving voicemail infotainment messages on various topics of interest to them. Other noteworthy results show that users indicated they would consider switching operators or handsets to gain access to these new services. For example, when asked: "Assuming all things equal, if your current operator did not offer multimedia mobile e-mail and another operator did, would you switch?" 41% of the respondents said they would.

Ramesh Barasia, president of Comverse Americas, said: "The research results suggest significant market demand for a richer mobile experience that takes advantage of new voice/data and handset technology in a user-friendly way to improve people`s everyday lives. Research also suggests that subscribers are eager for attractive new enhanced services and appear to be prepared to pay for a wide range of benefits. The results are good news for operators looking for new revenue streams and tangible benefits from their 2.5 and 3G investments."

* Multimedia mobile e-mail: A PC-like inbox with familiar colourful icons facilitate easy handling of email messages and attachments, including Microsoft Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, and video and audio files.

* Record and send: Users send voice messages directly to any person or group (whether or not they are voicemail subscribers) without interrupting them or causing their phones to ring. Record and Send notifies the called party of the new message, which can be accessed directly, through a single button.

* Visual voicemail: A colourful information-rich visual inbox transforms voicemail into an attractive, intuitive email-like experience with easy message handling.

* Voicemail infotainment: High-quality audio infotainment messages - with interactive capability - are delivered to the voice mailbox from desired community, infotainment and direct marketing content providers (news, sports, traffic, weather, finance, humour, celebrity news and gossip, payment and personal reminders and last minute special sale offers.)

Comverse InSight environment for next-generation services utilises a modular, standards-based, open IP architecture that integrates data network and smart handset capabilities. Core components, including multimedia message storage, address book, media and presence servers, and subscriber profile database serve all associated applications.

InSight`s enhanced multimodal user experience, which is cohesive across voice and data services, provides an attractive single point of access to all types of messages and personal files. InSight creates a pioneering environment that enables rapid deployment of new, exciting Total Communication, enhanced messaging and infotainment services for individuals, groups and communities supplied by Comverse and third-parties.