DALLAS-New research shows the nation’s wireless carriers should look to minorities, including blacks and Hispanics, as these groups represent a major new opportunities for sales.
According to a new survey from Parks Associates, 31 percent of blacks and 14 percent of Hispanics are planning to buy mobile phones within the next 12 months, compared with just 10 percent of whites. Further, minorities are also more likely to be first-time buyers of mobile phones. Among whites, just 3 percent of likely mobile-phone buyers did not already own phones, while 8 percent of blacks and 7 percent of Hispanics would be first-time buyers.
“These findings clearly have big implications for the cellular industry,” said John Barrett, the report’s author and analyst for Parks Associates. “In terms of subscriber growth and handset sales, minorities are becoming much more important, and we’re already seeing operators change their marketing and pricing as a result.”
