Commercial-free radio over mobile phones and the ability to download music to phones are the two most interesting advanced mobile services to young adults, according to a recent study.
The survey, conducted by the Network Management Group consulting firm, also showed greater interest in a free ad-supported mobile video service than a subscription video service, such as those offered by Verizon Wireless and Sprint .
Many wireless service providers hope to boost their revenue with services like streaming music or video clip and music downloads to mobile phones, but there are still questions about demand for the new services.
About 40 percent of 1,000 phone users between 13 and 34 years old would be very interested in commercial-free radio over their mobile phone, the survey said. Nearly 35 percent of those surveyed showed an interest in wireless music downloads.
It also said 40 percent of users showed strong interest in ad-supported video services, while less than 20 percent of respondents would be very or extremely likely to pay either a monthly mobile video subscription of $4 a month or a fee of 30 cents per video clip, it said.
Verizon, the No. 2 U.S. mobile provider, and its next biggest rival, Sprint, both charge roughly $15 a month for their video packages.
U.S. operators are widely expected to provide full download services to phones in the coming year but pricing such services for broad demand could also be tricky.
Paul Petersky, TMNG's vice president of market research, said that survey respondents preferred the idea of paying 99 cents per song for music downloads rather than $19.95 monthly for up to 30 song downloads.
Petersky said that while only 21 percent of respondents said they were very interested in playing multiplayer video games on their phones he noted that teenage respondents were most interested in these services.
Reuters/VNU
