A sizeable number of European consumers would be willing to pay a premium for multi-device access to services, for better network service quality, and for an all-in-one data tariff, according to research commissioned by Amdocs.
Amdocs commissioned a consumer survey from by Coleman Parkes, who surveyed more than 4,700 consumers of various age groups in 14 countries, spanning North and South America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.
According to Daniela Perlmutter, Director of Amdocs’ Market Strategy and Research Team. the survey asked which items consumers would be willing to pay a premium for, specifically asking what services consumers would pay more for on top of their existing spend. The top three answers from the 1355 European consumers surveyed were:
1. 33% said they were willing to pay more than they already do to gain the ability to use all services and apps from any device, anywhere.
2. 28% said they would pay more for better network quality: fewer disconnects, delays, higher download speeds
3. Thirdly, there was a desire for one, all-in, data tariff that includes a number of devices – rather than specific tariffs for the phone, dongle, iPad etc. 21% said they would pay a premium for a data bundle for all mobile connected devices
The percentage of people saying they would pay more for other capabilities were as follows:
18% said they would pay more for regular and agreed device updates
18% for cool devices
18% for premium support from the service provider
17% for access to great TV/ other content
12% for getting regular and agreed updates in service
Coleman Parkes also asked consumers what services they would like to use in future on their mobile. The three top scorers here, in terms of a mean score of services ranked from 1-10 were:
1. The ability to pay for products by phone (mean score of 6.3)
2. THe ability connect to other devices – tablet, PC, games console, TV (6.2 mean score)
3. Back up of contact database (6.0)
Interestingly, the numbers of people highly ranking these services throws up a slightly different picture from the mean score ratings. 53% of respondents rated contacts back up as scoring 7 or higher out of 10. 51% rated the connection to other devices as 7/10 or better, whilst only 46% rated mobile payments as a 7/10 or better.
Perlmutter said that the results reflected a global desire for more cross-platform connectivity, and for increased quality of services. Across the global survey, more than two-thirds of consumers expect and want their mobile device to connect to a wide range of other devices, such as televisions (43%) and cars (38%), and to have the ability to access their content from any device (54%). Globally, more than 40% of respondents said they would be willing to pay a premium for this connectivity.
40% of all respondents also said they would be willing to pay a premium for the ability to use all services and applications from any device and 25% said they would pay a premium for data bundles that are applicable across all devices. A recent report from Computerworld quoted an IDG analyst stating that the slow growth of sales of 3G enabled tablets is related to consumers’ desire not to have to take on an aditional mobile data contract.
Perlmutter said that this consumer willingness to pay for increased quality and for multiple device connectivity would mean operators needing to rethink the way that they approach ther customer communication, and design, deliver and assure services.
“40% said they would pay more for better quality, but only 7% said they were concerned aobut speed. Yet operators tend to market on speed,” Perlmutter said. “So service providers need to think about their marketing, but also about the systems they need to provide these flexible and dynamic pricing models based on QoS, or on the specific value that a service provides to that consumer. That’s why there’s a very clear need to have the right policy management system in place to make sure a service is actually being delivered to the right device, to the right service level.”