Japan Leads In Mobile Services, Europe At Least Five Years Behind: Can Education Close The Gap?

When it comes to mobile services, Japan is still ahead of Europe by a whopping five years, even though operators in both regions introduced mobile Internet services at roughly the same time in the late 1990s. That’s the view of Forrester, which has found 52 percent of Japanese users regularly surf the mobile Web, compared to only 10 percent of European users. Forrester analyst and author of the report, Niek van Veen told Mobile Business European users are happy with SMS and need to be encouraged to use more sophisticated mobile data services. Indeed, 39 percent of European mobile users who have never used any mobile internet services don’t see any value in using them.

But operators can only wean users off simple services that work out-of-the-box if they make their other data services no-brainers. The report suggests better education and support at the point of sales are the answer. To this end product managers should work closer with sales and independent retailers, not only by offering one-day training courses to educate staff, as is the norm, but to let them trial handsets, learn how they work first hand rather than via a manual. It also suggests conducting workshops in shops using mobile Internet experts. Another lure might be genuinely useful information. Forrester recommends European mobile operators should target users with access to timely and location-relevant content. Predictably, flat tariffs would also go a long way toward encouraging use, Forrester concludes.

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