Business News Holding

Category: smartphone

  • BMW Offers Legal Way To Drive Z4 Roadster While Using iPhone

    smartphone iphone
    BMW has come up with a novel – and legal – way to drive its new Z4 Roadster while using the iPhone.

    No, it’s not some ingenious hands-free device designed by engineering geniuses at the German car-maker.

    It’s a free game for the Apple handset created by mobile applications company Artificial Life.

    According to BMW, the launch of the lite version of the "BMW Z4 – An Expression of Joy" game offers BMW fans the first opportunity worldwide to virtually customize and test drive the new Z4 Roadster.

    While the game will no doubt appeal to fans of the German sportscar, it also demonstrates the potential smartphones offer to inventive marketing departments.

    Andreas Schwarzmeier, of BMW Sports Marketing & Cooperations,said the car-maker was always looking for innovative and effective communication channels.

    He said the game had been produced to accompany the BMW Z4 marketing campaign.

    "For a long time the game market has delivered new products and technologies closer to the consumer," he said.

    "Additionally this game perfectly fits with the key intention of our brand ‘Joy’."

    Presented in top quality interactive 3D graphics, the lite version is described as "a unique driving game that lets players drive the BMW Z4 while at the same time painting a picture using the car’s tires".

    The virtual car configurator enables players to choose between the official BMW Z4 colors and rims to create their own roadster.

    The option to drive with an open or closed retractable hardtop gives additional authenticity.

    Selections can be made by simply tapping on the various components. Players can virtually rotate the car around in order to view the car from different angles. The customized cars that players create may be saved for use in the driving game.

    The game is available for download for the iPhone and iPod touch in Apple’s App Store. A full version is being prepared for release in May.

  • INTERVIEW: Ivar Plahte, CEO and Co-Founder of OnRelay

    "Mobile PBX is the future – and the era of everyone having corporate desktop handsets is coming to a close" – Ivar Plahte, winner of smartphone-biz.news’ Person of the Year Award 2008

    Cast your eyes over most office desks and something they have in common is a fixed-line telephone – at least for now.

    Ivar Plahte, CEO and co-founder of OnRelay, has no doubt that mobile PBX is the future – with smartphones increasingly replacing desktop phones to become the sole business phone.

    But then someone who runs a unified communications software company firmly focused on cellular Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) might be expected to say that.

    Founded in early 2000, OnRelay is a pioneer of mobile PBX and launched the first global private mobile branch exchange.

    In January, the company launched Unified MBX, a solution that delivers complete IP PBX functionality to the mobile phone.

    Essentially it turns users’ smartphones into full desk phone replacements, supports PBX functions such as caller ID and calling name and offers business vs personal call separation.

    Ivar Plahte, CEO  and Co-founder OnRelay

    Plahte told smartphone-biz.news that interest had already been huge – with inquiries from 100,000-employee enterprises right down to very small businesses.

    "It’s very cool in the sense that Unified MBX can be deployed in a plug-and-play manner," he said.

    Shift from IP PBX to mobile PBX

    While it may not yet be apparent, Plahte said there were "dramatic changes" currently taking place as enterprises shifted from IP PBXs to mobile PBXs.

    To underline that this isn’t some future-case scenario, he said OnRelay had just finalised an agreement with one of the top five global telecom service providers.

    The company was also deploying its solution in what he described as a "very large enterprise".

    "They said explicitly they do not want a single deskphone – they only want smartphones," he said.

    "This gives a very strong indication that this market we have been pushing for is really emerging."

    Mobile PBX is Fourth Generation

    Plahte said the best way to think of mobile PBX was in generations, with the progression from analog PBX to digital PBX and then on to the IP PBX.

    "Looking at the previous change between digital and IP, the desk phone was very similar – it was still a proprietary type of desk phone," he said.

    "We are talking about two very similar systems, both vertically integrated, coming from the same vendor, hardware-based models.

    "Even if the technology is different, the markets are quite similar."

    That isn’t the case with the move from IP PBX to mobile PBX, according to Plahte.

    The CEO said this was especially apparent in the back office with the change from hardware to software platforms.

    He said that while companies might still want to have fixed phones – such as for call centre switchboards – most users would have mobiles as their desktop phones.

    "A PBX where the backdrop is software, the network is the public mobile network and the predominant device is the mobile phone," he said.

    What has made this type of scenario possible are factors such as the improvements made to smartphone reliability in the last couple of years and the fall in mobile call prices.

    Even so, Plahte said the only way to convince companies to ditch deskphones was to demonstrate the reliability of the solution to them.

    He said businesses already made a sizeable proportion of their calls on mobiles – the novelty was that a mobile PBX meant the handsets could become the only mode of business communication.

    While OnRelay is very aggressively anti-deskphone, Plahte said it was important to assure customers they can "mix-and-match" in whatever way they like.

    "If they only want to use a mobile, then that’s fine," he said.

    "If they are a little sceptical – perhaps because of coverage – then they can have a deskphone that pairs with a mobile and rings at the same time."

    Not making this clear was where a lot of fixed/mobile substitution has been misdirected, according to Plahte.

    "They were telling companies: ‘You have to throw out every everything and only have mobile phones’," he said. "Our proposition is more balanced."

    Competitors Lagging Behind

    While competitors in the form of PBX vendors have been threatening to copy OnRelay since 2003, Plahte said he was confident they had a significant lead over them.

    He said OnRelay also differed from the largely voice-over-WiFi technology being touted by competitors.

    After initially offering large enterprises managed MBX projects, the UK-headquartered company has now launched Unified MBX.

    While OnRelay’s main markets are in Europe and the Far East it is also targeting the US.

    Plahte said the US market was different in terms of:

    – the network: "2/3 years behind Europe in quality of coverage but catching up"

    – smartphone brands: "RIM’s Blackberry and Apple’s iPhone strong, while Nokia is very small in the US

    – contracts: "In Europe a lot of companies pay for their employees’ contracts. That is getting there now in the US."

    – Europe more aggressive in getting rid of deskphone completely: "In the US, the combination of mobile and deskphone will linger for longer."

    OS Diversity is "Disappointing"

    Plahte said the diversity of operating systems on smartphones has been a major headache.

    OnRelay has to port a significant amount of software for every platform and user experience is very important.

    "I hoped operating systems would converge but they are doing the opposite," he said. "For us, that’s disappointing."

    While having to work across four or five platforms has slowed development, Plahte said he never doubted the solution would be launched.
    "I have always had the firm belief that this market is inevitable," he said.

    "It is just a question of time in relation to when this generation of PBX will happen."

    We are interested in hearing your views on mobile PBX – can you see your enterprise becoming mobile-only?

  • Acer Plans To Drive Down Price of Smartphones







    It was always on the cards from the moment Acer announced its intention to enter the smartphone arena.

    Now the Taiwanese electronics giant has made it clear that it plans to drive down the cost of smartphones – to a level where mobile operators could give them away for free.

    Acer plans to release two low-priced handsets – the F1 and L1 – in October. Both will be touchscreen devices running Windows Mobile 6.5.

    They will obviously be pitched as entry-level smartphones and will be sold as Pay as you Go models for around USD $62 after network subsidies.

    Acer’s Smart Handheld Business Group head, Aymar de Lencquesaing, speaking at CeBit, said there were four billion mobile phone users on the planet, but only 200 million smartphone users.

    He reasoned that driving down the price and enabling operators to give the phones away free – with a contract – was the "surest way to drive adoption".

  • Mobile Operators Must Cut Data Fees and Offer Smartphone Subsidies







    While prospects for the overall mobile handset market remain gloomy, smartphones remain a bright spot with global unit growth as high as 11.1 per cent in 2009, according to iSuppli.

    The analysts’ optimistic forecast for global smartphone unit shipments translates into 192.3 million units in 2009, up from 173.6 million in 2008.

    A more pessimistic outlook calls for growth of only 6 per cent this year, reaching 183.9 million units.

    Tina Teng, senior analyst for wireless communications for iSuppli, stressed that for the optimistic scenario to come to fruition, wireless network operators had to cut fees for data services and offer aggressive subsidies to reduce consumer smart phone prices.

    "Furthermore, wireless operators and handset brands have to sell consumers on the value of smartphones to encourage customers to upgrade," she said.

    However, if consumer confidence continues to erode, iSuppli’s pessimistic forecast is likely to prevail, Teng warned.

    According to the optimistic scenario, smartphones will represent 17.4 per cent of total mobile handset unit shipments in 2009.

    If the pessimistic scenario holds sway, smartphones will account for only 16.6 per cent of total mobile handset shipments this year.

    The optimistic scenario also foresees a unit shipment Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 21 percent from 2008 to 2013, while the pessimistic view predicts an 18.3 percent growth rate.

    Teng said that with 3G networks becoming prevalent around the world, smartphones are now for consumer as well as corporate users.

    "Consumers increasingly are demanding data-intensive applications that require the kinds of high data speeds supported by 3G networks," she said.

  • INTERVIEW: Ofer Tziperman, President of LocatioNet




































    Ofer Tziperman, president of LocatioNet, spoke in detail to smartphone-biz.news about its free navigation and local search service amAze.
    A pioneer of ad-funded mobile applications, he gave his views on the revenue model’s future prospects – and the benefits of targeting mobile users with location-based adverts.

    When LocatioNet launched its first mobile GPS application four years ago with Orange in Israel it was far from clear if mobile content could be funded by advertising.

    LocatioNet took that gamble and from the popularity of its amAze service, it appears to have paid off.

    The free GPS service, which was last week named as the winner of smartphone-biz.news’ Product of the Year 2008 award, is being compared favorably to expensive competing navigation systems.

    Ofer Tziperman, president of LocatioNet, says he thinks it is an accomplishment just to have cleared the massive hurdle of providing amAze across many mobile platforms, different phones and different manufacturers.

    "Today we are supporting more than 500 different handset models, so in terms of reach that is a major issue we have had to overcome," he says.

    Ad-funded Model Being Watched Closely

    Yet for mobile industry watchers, it is LocatioNet’s apparently-succesful adoption of an ad-funded revenue model that will have wider implications.

    Tziperman is quite aware of this: "AmAze is an interesting combination between the features it offers and the creativity of the business model.

    "It is the first such product available on the market that takes an ad-funded model."

    As the former attorney says – everyone likes something for free – but in the case of applications like amAze, revenue has to be generated somewhere.

    What LocatioNet’s internal team of developers did with amAze was build into the client and backend server a full advertising mechanism.

    This has been successfully trialled in several markets and Tziperman says it will go live in the next few weeks.

    "The idea is that whenever someone opens the application – say in London – then we know that in the backend server," he said.

    "A request is then sent to the relevant ad server and they can send, where it’s available, an advert relevant to London – or to the specific street the person is in.

    "We send this in the background to the user and it pops up only in idle moments. So the service is ad-funded but it’s not irritating in the sense that it will disturb users."

    So during navigation, adverts will not distract people. But when someone is searching for a route, adverts will pop up between the search being sent and the results being displayed.

    Location-sensitive Ads

    Tziperman says that since the ads are location sensitive, they could, say, be offering coupons for a local restaurant. The establisment could then be located on the navigation system and a routing calculation run – all with the click of a button.

    "So on the one hand we are able to provide a very interesting navigation solution to end users, but at the same time what we are aiming to provide is a very interesting tool for advertisers," he says.

    "Our goal was to marry the needs of these two segments."

    Since there is the ability to expose users to adverts very specific to their location, Tziperman says they could command premium rates from advertisers.

    He says ad agencies and advertisers are becoming aware of the advantages GPS-aided advertising offered.

    "This is happening right now. It’s not just a vision. It’s all about relevancy to advertisers.

    "Already some ad servers are focussing on location-based advertising. The premium that they can sell advertising for is significantly higher than ad banners that lead into WAP sites."

    Tziperman says eventually it will be all about the click-through rates. On Internet ads these are below 1%, on websites around 3% and for location-based advertising estimates range from 4% to 10%.

    "I prefer to stick to the low numbers at the moment, but there’s no doubt location-based advertising makes it much more interesting from the users’ point of view," says Tziperman.

    "The idea is to allow users to ignore adverts on the one hand or to interact with them if they wish. But we have to make sure the basic application is very useful and compelling to get the attention of the user.

    "Then we can enrich it with relevant information."

    The latter, in the form of coupons for a nearby shop or restaurant, could actually save users money, according to Tziperman: "Even if you get the application for free, you can still save money."

    Concerns About Mobile Ads

    While you would expect Tziperman to be enthusiastic about amAze, there would appear to be plenty of users who have tried it and found it an appealing service – ads and all.

    Tziperman said that wasn’t everyone’s reaction.

    "Initially when you speak about mobile advertising it causes some fear because people see themselves being bombarded with SMS-type messages," he says.

    "We are not bombarding users but only showing adverts in idle moments."

    "We are taking a different approach. We are not bombarding users but only showing adverts in idle moments.
    "You can ignore them or, if it makes sense, dig further."

    Tziperman describes the path to today’s amAze service as an evolving one. LocatioNet started its mobile business in 2000 by selling LBS infrastructure to mobile operators.

    Four years later this had evolved into a fully fledged GPS service that was launched in Israel with Orange. It was – and still is – a great success.

    So much so that the company wanted to roll it out to other markets, but realised that first it would have to strike agreements with operators in dozens of countries.

    Gamble on Ad-funded Content

    Tziperman said it was decided that was going to be a slow process and LocatioNet took the gamble of offering the navigation app directly to consumers.

    "We realised that if we had to knock on the doors of a few hundred mobile operators around the world and then wait for them to make a decision, it would take forever," he said.

    "So we decided that the best way to approach the worldwide market was via consumers."

    It was decided that to get around the billing issue, they would have to count on advertising.

    But four years ago, while the business model for Internet advertising was well proven – it wasn’t certain whether it be transferred to the mobile phone.

    "The answer wasn’t clear but now we are gaining a lot of momentum," says Tziperman.

    Economic Downturn May Favor Mobile Ads

    While the global downturn is having a serious effect on the advertising industry, LocatioNet’s president believes the situation could actually work in favor of mobile ads.

    "You hear more and more advertisers that want to put their budgets on a more measurable basis – so more online advertising rather than TV, newspapers and billboards," he says.

    "Mobile is one section of online, so we think that over time this crisis might even serve us better than others."

    LocatioNet has plans to launch amAze as a white label solution – as it did recently as the 11 88 0 service in Germany with Telegate.

    Tziperman admits the advertising market is not going to shift overnight so the company is anticipating making money from a "healthy mix" of premium services and ad-funded ones.

    "If you look to the future we believe we may be the first business taking this direction, with an aggressive business model, but we will not be the last," he says.

    "Two to three years down the road a lot of service providers will be providing ad-funded navigation."

    We’d be interested in hearing your views on ad-funded mobile content.













  • TuneWiki Adds Lyrics To Mobile Streaming Radio







    TuneWiki is taking the idea of giving listeners lyrics to go with their mobile music a stage further by extending it to streaming radio.

    The social media player already offers audio and video while displaying synchronized or translated lyrics.

    Smartphone-biz.news spoke to Chad Kouse, VP of R&D and CIO of the US-based developers, at the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

    He said the streaming internet radio service would allow users to search by genre and select from thousands of global radio stations.

    But more interestingly, he said it would also give listeners the ability to add lyrics to songs – even if they "tuned in" mid-way through a track.

    "This is the first time anyone has put lyrics and album work on streaming radio," he said.

    The free media enhancement application is available for Google Android, but TuneWiki expects to release it for BlackBerry, J2ME, Symbian and Windows Mobile devices by April.

    The advanced player also features translation, music maps and a social network.

    This music-based network allows users to share music information with friends – what they are playing in real time and allows friends to send feedback to the handset.

    TuneWiki displays music maps that show songs playing in the same GPS location and can navigate the map to any other location in the world to see what’s playing there.





    It also creates music charts that shows top songs in GPS location, or of any country or state.

    Kouse said TuneWiki has had over 2 million downloads of its software since launching fully eight months ago.

    It is also possible to download TuneWiki onto jailbroken iPhones and iPod Touches and Kouse said the team are currently working on Palm.

    TuneWiki’s goal is to have lyrics always on, always available, always synchronized to music – on any device that can play music back and connect to the internet.

    He said a community-based effort was the way to put music and lyrics together.

    See below a short video demonstration from MWC.

    TuneWiki has also negotiated a partnership with a major music publishers association that grants it the rights to stream lyrics for almost 2 million songs – ensuring the legal use of many submitted lyrics.

    Those that fall outside the licensing remit are protected under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which allows unlicensed lyrics to be uploaded, unless the rights-owner asks for a take-down.

  • OnRelay's Ivar Plahte Wins Smartphone-biz.news' Person of the Year Award


    A true visionary, a trend spotter, truly innovative and the driving force behind OnRelay.

    Just some of the plaudits from those that voted OnRelay’s CEO and co-founder Ivar Plahte as smartphone-biz.news’ Person of the Year 2008.

    In second place was Ofer Tziperman, president and co-founder of LocatioNet, the mapping and location applications company.

    As CEO of OnRelay for the past seven years, Plahte has established himself as a key thought leader in the Fixed Mobile Convergence space.

    Prior to OnRelay, Plahte was director of IP telephony at Telenor, where he created and was the general manager of the Telecom over IP business unit.

    Ivar Plahte, CEO OnRelay

    His team produced several world-first launches and was among the first public operators worldwide to establish a voice over IP based revenue stream.

    Before Telenor, Plahte was Ericsson’s global product manager for IP Services.

    He has a BSc in Electrical Engineering and an MSc in Computer Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

    Voters who recommended Plahte spoke of his vision and drive.

    "Ivar has been at the forefront of Mobile telephony for his entire career," said one reader.

    "He founded OnRelay to develop cellular FMC and only recently has the market managed to get over the WiFi hype and start to take the cellular option seriously.

    "Ivar has been there all along, and now has his company well positioned to capture the market as it looks for the right solution."

    Others described him as a "telecoms pioneer" whose vision predicted FMC shift back in 2000 and did something about it – "picking the right tech and staying at it".

    The last word must go to one supporter, who simply said "he rocks". Praise indeed.

    The runner-up, Ofer Tziperman, has over a decade of extensive experience in international business and in the marketing of high-tech products.

    LocatioNet provides mapping and location enabled applications to tier one telecom and defense customers around the world.

    Under Tziperman’s guidance the company has become one of the leading technology providers in the LBS and C4I markets, with an international presence in Europe, USA, Latin America and Asia.

    Prior to establishing LocatioNet, he served as VP Marketing for OTI, a public high-tech company listed in the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and NASDAQ that specializes in contactless smart card technology.

    Tziperman played a major role in turning OTI from a young start-up company to an international organization with subsidiaries and front offices around the world.

    An attorney who practiced commercial and business law, he holds an LLB degree from the Faculty of Law at Tel Aviv University and is a graduate of the Israeli Naval Officers Academy.

  • AmAze Clear Winner of Smartphone-biz.news' Product of the Year Award


    AmAze’s free navigation and local search service is the winner of smartphone-biz.news’ Product of the Year 2008 award.

    With 41 per cent of the nominations, the turn-by-turn GPS program was the clear winner in a field that included Fring, mobile messaging service Nimbuzz and cellular fixed mobile convergence solution OnRelay MBX.

    AmAze has carved out a strong position for itself with its wide coverage of maps, including aerial photo in Europe, North America, Australia and parts of Asia and Africa.

    In collecting the most votes amAze also got some strong endorsements from readers who universally praised the service for its features and usability.

    One user described it as an "amazing free GPS tool – kicks dust into the expensive and cumbersome to update Garmin and other GPS services".

    Another said it was "just as good, if not better, than pricey GPS programs", while someone else said the GPS navigation "looks really great…and is FREE. It doesn’t get any better".

    Runner-up Nimbuzz took 20 per cent of the votes and also earned some enthusiastic admiration from readers who praised its services in the crowded mobile IM client space – "Nimbuzz stands out for it’s stability, well thought out interface and impressive network support," said one voter.

    "Smart connection options certainly don’t hurt the product either".

    Nimbuzz is targeting mobile users and online communities with free calls, chat and more.

    The "more" includes free mobile VoIP calling (excluding data charges), conference calling, instant messaging, chat and group chat, and photo and file sending across multiple IM communities, including Skype, MSN, Google Talk, Yahoo, AIM, Jabber and ICQ, plus 23 social networks, including Facebook and Myspace.

    Nimbuzz’s ability to "go beyond Skype" is a major appeal. One reader said: "I have tried many mobile instant messaging solutions, and Nimbuzz does everything I expect it to, does it well, keeps improving, and is free."

    Coming in third in the competition with 12 per cent of the vote was Fring, the mobile internet community and communication service.

    As well as its social appeal, Fring also lets users make affordable local and international calls to landline and regular cellular numbers using a SkypeOut/SkypeIn account or almost any internet voice service (SIP) such as SIPNET, EuteliaVoIP, VoIPVoIP and VoIPTalk, including from non-SIP enabled handsets.

    Among the voters’ praise for Fring was the fact the "wonderful application…keeps me available to my boss, colleagues and friends always".

    Others congratulated Fring for "supporting different VoiP providers in a single tool which can be installed in several mobile platforms", and described it as "the best software enabling you to keep in touch with all IM buddies as well as enabling you to make Voip/Sip calls".

    "It’s simple and easy to use and works well," explained a user. "Unlike similar applications it truly offers choice and freedom and is totally free. There is also free web support, free and interesting add-ons and a thriving online community."

    The fourth placed product with 9 per cent of the vote was OnRelay with its pioneering mobile PBX – the first global private mobile branch exchange, OnRelay MBX.

    It offers enterprises and operators a seamless Cellular Fixed Mobile Convergence solution and has commercial deployments in Tier 1 operators and Fortune 500 companies.

    The groundbreaking architecture has enabled OnRelay to claim to be the only cellular based FMC solution on the market able to completely replace desk phones, creating a "mobile only PBX" to disrupt the hardware intensive VoIP and WiFi markets.

    Readers described it as "the coolest thing ever – one phone does all", "the most innovative and exciting product on the market" and said "the addition of MBX to your professional life is transformative".

    One voter said: "The beauty of the smartphone is that they can save companies money because they can be used for several things.

    "In OnRelay’s case – customers can also replace deskphones with smartphones – a huge opportunity in this bear market.

    "Also a big opportunity for smartphone vendors to sell more smartphones."

    The top four entries saw off competition from a wide-ranging field of companies, including JaJah, Octrotalk, Orblive, Handyshell, Beejive IM, DinnerSpinner, MobiExplore and the N-Gage platform.

    Smartphone-biz.news would like to thank everyone who took the effort to nominate a product and to cast a vote.

  • Growing Appeal of Memory Card Movies For Mobiles


    Watching movies on smartphones has in the past had its drawbacks – picture quality, screen size and memory limitations among the most obvious.

    Those are fading rapidly but it seems that delivering video content to mobiles is occupying a lot of people’s attention.

    In the US Alltel Wireless is offering buyers of the new touchscreen Samsung Delve a free 2 GB microSD memory card if they buy the handset before April 16.

    What makes the offer interesting is that Paramount Pictures will put the Mission: Impossible trilogy on the card.

    At last week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, smartphone-biz-news spoke to Marine Desoutter, marketing manager with Mobilclip, about its video compression technology that puts movies on memory cards.

    She said the French company has distributed over 100 movie titles worldwide on Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and Samsung handsets.

    "Mobile video consumers have not had an optimal experience with video quality on their devices," she said.

    "To change their perception and really deliver on expectations that video quality on mobile devices must match TV or PC quality, the same experience needs to be delivered."

    Desoutter said Mobiclip memory card movies provided full screen display on QVGA handsets (320×240 pixels), 25 frames per second and highly optimized codec for lower battery consumption.

    The memory cards can be used on any handset with a card slot running Symbian S60, Windows Mobile, Palm or Linux operating systems.

    Certainly the quality of the video can’t be faulted but whether movie deals bundled with mobiles will become a standard feature in the near future remains to be seen.

    A survey just released suggests that embedded content is an increasingly strong influence in swaying consumers’ mobile purchase decisions.

    So perhaps the offer of some blockbuster movies on a memory card will be equally persuasive.

    We’d be interested in hearing if you think that’s so.

  • Does a Mobile's Embedded Content Influence Purchase Decisions?


    Many factors influence consumers’ decisions to buy one mobile phone over the other – but it seems that embedded content is an increasingly important one.

    A survey by independent app store GetJar has found that brand remains the key purchase decision factor (28% respondents), followed some way behind by user experience (17%).

    But coming up in third place is embedded content, which GetJar says is now more important in purchase decisions than price, design or even touchscreen capability.

    Ilja Laurs, founder and CEO of GetJar Networks, said that a phone’s user interface and brand are dominant factors for deciding which handset consumers choose.

    "The big change in consumer preference we see within this survey is the importance they are placing on content," he said.

    The survey asked respondents to rank a list of 10 phone features by order of importance including brand, screen size/resolution, user experience/phone software, phone memory, quality of camera, price, touchscreen, music player, embedded content and overall design/look and feel.

    Those taking part in the poll, conducted across the 130 countries in the GetJar network, were also asked to grade each of those features individually on a five-level scale of importance.

    The content that comes with the handset placed third with 12 per cent of respondents worldwide saying it is "extremely important" to their choice of new handset ahead of phone memory (8%), price (5%) and design (7%).

    While the poll showed increased demand for embedded content across all the major international regions, it is US consumers that appear to place it higher on their list of priorities than those in Europe.

    In the US 60 per cent of respondents said it was "extremely important" to their choice of handset compared to 47 per cent in Europe.

    The findings also indicate that the uptake of new handsets will be faster in Europe, with only 25 per cent of those surveyed saying they will not get a new phone this year compared to 40 per cent of US consumers polled.