SAN FRANCISCO-More than one-quarter of all European mobile subscribers replace their handsets every year, and 60 percent replace after two years, according to San Francisco-based Telephia’s first-quarter report on the subject. Purchase rates are highest at the 12-, 24- and 36-month cycles, which matches up with the expiration of service contracts.
Telephia suggested that the data would push vendors and carriers to “continuously innovate their products and services portfolio to renew the `wow’ factor for consumers”-especially young consumers.
The six European countries included in the report (Spain, Italy, United Kingdom, Sweden, France and Germany) show only slight variation in replacement rates, but the most pronounced trend is among age groups. Teens, ages 15-17, buy new phones every 20 months on average, while young adults, ages 18-24, buy every 21 months. In contrast, subscribers aged 55 years and older purchase new handsets every 31 months.
Carriers and vendors take note: “Young mobile users are naturally more apt to adopt advanced data services,” said Bernard Brenner, director of new products-international at Telephia. “Teens and young adults are more than twice as likely as older users to use … applications such as MP3 and video downloads.”
