14 DAY TRIAL // Buongiorno has published the results of its third edition of "VASland 2006", a global research of how people regard "non voice" services for mobile phones. The study was conducted on a sample of 5,000 users, with ages between 14 and 44 years from 10 countries in 2 continents. The name of the study comes from the acronym Value Added Services (mobile digital content such as videos, ringtones and wallpapers).
As one of the main highlights of the research, Buongiorno identifies three tribes of mobile users: "Symbiotics", "Rationals" and "Fashionistas". The first category, Symbiotics, comprises 48% of mobile users and is characterized by a close relationship between them and their mobiles. Personalization is found to be their main reason to download Value Added Services. With ages mainly over 25 years, the Symbiotics favor services such as top 10 ringtones, name tones and wallpapers name. The second category, Rationals, represents 25% of the interviewed people. They have a conflictual relationship with mobile phones: on the one hand, they appreciate their phone's usefulness and functional value; on the other hand, they don't regard their phones as a life style. Rationals mostly prefer infotainment services via sms and mms, but also software applications such as "Sport Companion". The third category, Fashionistas, includes 27% of the sample, mostly teenagers and young adults. They make the phone a part of their life style and consider it a status symbol. They prefer ringtones of the music hits and wallpapers of famous brands as Hello Kitty and celebrities.
From the research also results that the relationship with the mobile phone has different trends in the countries investigated. The Italian market is more mature than the French one, where the curious approach is still prevailing and the aesthetic aspect is very relevant. Italians buy a mobile phone in order to belong to a group, to emulate friends and share with them content of each kind. They appreciate the handset functionality, as Germans do, and are very keen to download Value Added Services. In the UK and US, the playful aspect is the most relevant one, people appreciating in particular all the time-killer applications, such as games and mobile TV.
Other interesting differences have been found between men and women. While men like games, news via sms and mms, software applications and adult content; women tend to prefer ringtones, screen savers, wallpapers, entertainment via sms and interactive voting services.