Mobile users yearning for the simple life

It seems mobile phone users aren't that interested in using many of the advanced features - such as web browsing and TV - that operators have been pushing.

The proportion of mobile users using eight out of 11 advanced services has declined in the last year, according to a survey from Continental Research which quizzed just under 1,000 people.

The percentage of users accessing the internet on their mobile phone fell from 14 per cent to 12 per cent in the last year, while six per cent fewer users were downloading ringtones.

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Other advanced features that have declined in use include mobile TV, downloading and sending video, and subscription-based text information services.

The only features to have become more popular are the sending of photo messages and downloading games, both of which rose by one per cent.

Report author James Myring said the proportion of customers using advanced services is still relatively small despite mobile networks aggressively promoting them.

He added much of the problem is that many mobile users are not interested, so operators are in many cases, "simply knocking against a locked door" when pushing the services.

A significant majority (68 per cent) of mobile users said they would prefer a more basic phone that was cheap and easy to use.

Just a quarter of users surveyed said they would pay more for a stylish handset or for the latest mobile technology.

Myring said there is a two-tier market consisting of a larger group of older users with little interest in latest mobile services and a lucrative younger minority willing to stump up for style and technology.

O2 customers are the most likely to fall into the latter group, with 37 per cent saying they would pay more for the latest mobile tech.