User unfriendly devices are slowing growth in the mobile industry

Mformation, specialist in mobile device management, has released survey results showing that 95% of consumers are put off from trying new services because the set-up is too hard.

The survey included 2,000 users in the UK and US. It highlighted just how little knowledge there is among consumers about mobile services. Setting up new services, or moving to a new phone, is so difficult that users get frustrated and stop trying.

The main points from the survey:

45% of people don’t upgrade to newer phones because of set-up issues

61% said phone set-up is as frustrating as changing a bank account

On average, respondents said they want set-up for a new phone to take no longer than 15 minutes, but it usually takes closer to an hour.

61% have stopped using mobile applications because they can’t solve problems with them.

Often, basic services don’t work out of the box. Respondents named e-mail, Internet browsing, instant messaging and picture messaging as the main things that don’t always work when they first switch on their phone.

Consumers are unaware that services are available to move data/contacts from an old device to a new one.

What we think?

This survey raises some really important issues. Mobile phones should be the next huge step forward in mass communications. Indeed, people have been saying that they will be for years now. And yet, they remain lagging behind web based services. Reliable, easy to use mobile services like phonecalls and SMS see huge use, but anything beyond that is sufficiently difficult to use that they drive consumers away. The final point in the survey is particularly noteworthy when it says “consumers are unaware”. Mobile user education is desperately needed, and mostly absent.

It also doesn’t help that the devices themselves are rarely intuitive. The iPhone is a huge exception to that rule (and immediately huge sales and use have been it’s reward), but a lot of handsets are challenging to figure out at best. I think that Bjarne Stroustrup, creator of C++, summed it up best when he said “I have always wished that my computer would be as easy to use as my telephone. My wish has come true. I no longer know how to use my telephone.”