Europeans Turn On To Touch Screens; Bigger Could Be Better

Good news for Apple and handset vendors – including LG and HTC – that have announced their own touch screen devices. European mobile phone users are increasingly receptive to these devices and warming up to the interface, according to an online survey of more than 2,000 adult mobile users across France Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K. conducted by Canalys. When asked about their personal phone preferences, 33 percent of respondents said that having a touch screen interface would be good because it gave them a bigger display. Acceptance of touch screen phones was up to 50 percent higher among users who showed an interest in having mobile TV services or other features that require a larger screen. But users are not wild about having to buy bigger phones to get bigger screens; 24 percent said a small phone was the priority regardless of the input mechanism.

Is bigger better? Well, it goes a long way toward solving the content accessibility problem that has so far stunted growth in content sales. Canalys found that less than 10 percent of users surveyed were paying for and downloading content on a recurring basis. No rocket science here. If users can’t use the phones, then they’re not going to buy a lot of content (and then there’s the problem of content discoverability that is exacerbated by confusing menus

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