Research report on youth and wireless technologies

24 October 2001 News

A leading market research and consulting firm has released a study on technology trends: 'The wireless future - a look at youth unplugged' that looks at wireless communication and mobile technology behaviours and attitudes of young people from 13 to 24. The significance of the Cheskin study lies in specific product and application development recommendations, and the identification of eight future wireless trends.

Amy Francetic, Wireless Consultant at Cheskin says, "Carriers have spent so much capital acquiring spectrum for 2,5 and 3G networks that they now need to think strategically about how to grow their business. Understanding consumer behaviour, in particular the youth market who can be a bellwether for the mass market, is crucial to predicting what will drive users to upgrade their phones to take advantage of these high-capacity networks."

Eight predictive trends in the wireless industry emerged from the research. A partial list includes: social connectivity and entertainment will be the primary defining characteristics of wireless devices; young people will build relationships via wireless devices; wireless entertainment and information applications will become favoured 'gap-fillers'; strategic convergence will define the most successful wireless devices; entertainment will drive the development of wireless cross-platform content.

See www.cheskin.com/think/studies/wireless.html

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