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U.S. Wireless Industry Fails to Lead By Example!; Valista Survey Reveals Only a Dismal 18% of U.S. Respondents Downloaded Content in the Past Week

Posted on: Wednesday, 28 September 2005, 09:00 CDT

Valista:

Valista's survey at CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment 2005 conference uncovers:

-- Over 25% of respondents did not download content within the last month

-- Only 23% of U.S. participants own a 3G handset, compared to 56% in Europe

-- Over 50% of respondents predict gaming and video will be the most downloaded content in 3 years

-- Ringtones are still the most favoured download

Valista, the leading provider of multi-channel payments and offer management software enabling the purchase of premium services, today revealed the results of a survey carried out at the CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment 2005 conference in San Francisco. The poll, which quizzed over a hundred show attendees, indicated that only 18% of respondents have downloaded content in the past week. Additional survey results demonstrate that the U.S. wireless industry is not leading by example when it comes to downloading content.

CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment is a conference attended by wireless developers, carrier and entertainment executives. Valista asked attendees what type of phone they use, details of their content download habits, as well as their views on the mobile content market's prospects for the next three to five years. Surprisingly, only 18% of respondents had downloaded content in the past week, compared to 53% in a European survey, which was conducted at the 2005 Mobile Content World conference in London. In addition, 29% had not downloaded any content in the last month and 15% have never downloaded any content at all. Those interviewed showed a preference for the older GSM/GPRS enabled handsets (61%) rather than the newer 3G devices (23%).

For those who had accessed content, the familiar ringtone was the download of choice, with music, gaming and information such as news, sports, weather and traffic updates, all falling into second place. As expected, hard goods was the least popular purchase when using a mobile device. More than 50% of respondents predicted that gaming and video would be the most popular downloads in three years.

While 64% found the process of downloading content easy and convenient, the remainder found it difficult, citing configuration issues and network interruptions as the problems. Surprisingly, 22% of the content purchased was part of an ongoing subscription model, which surpassed the European subscription downloading figures by 14%. Looking to the future, 26% of the industry insiders questioned at the show thought that in three years 3G would still be "just catching on."

Valista CEO Raomal Perera expressed disappointment at the fact that the U.S. wireless industry is not practicing what they are preaching: "The mobile content market has fantastic growth potential which has not yet been realized. We were surprised to find out that people working in the industry are not downloading content. The fact that only 18% of the respondents downloaded content in the past week underscores the need to improve the process of discovering, downloading and paying for content. A move towards greater consumer choice by offering off portal content, competitive pricing, focusing on value for money and customer satisfaction, will lead to an increase in the uptake of premium mobile content and services."

About Valista

Valista is the leading provider of multi-channel payments and offer management software for the purchase of premium services over web and mobile channels. The combined subscriber base with access to the Valista product suite exceeds 150 million users with over 2000 merchants utilizing the company's merchant integration technology. Valista's products support the entire commerce ecosystem and cover the end-to-end business processes including multi-channel ordering, authentication, payment, settlement, service delivery, and post-purchase care. Key customers: AOL, Vodafone UK, France Telecom's w-HA, Orange, Wanadoo, Tiscali, T-Online and VirginMega.fr (France), NTT DoCoMo, 3 (eight countries) and GTECH. Valista was formed from the merger of Network365 and iPIN in November 2003.

Valista won 'Best Wireless Application Developer' at the GSM Association Awards 2004 and has been chosen by both Red Herring and Tornado Insider as one of the Top 100 global companies for 2005.

Valista(R) and 'accelerating commerce(TM)' and 'new ways to purchase with multiple ways to pay(TM)', 'payments software enabling the purchase of premium services(TM)' are registered trademarks and trademarks of Valista Limited. All other trademarks and registered trademarks referenced in this document are the property of their respective owners.

Source: Business Wire

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