Multimedia tops Asian handset wish-list

The 2004 Asia Telecom Index reveals that amongst the current and future subscribers in Asia among the most-desired features are color screens (77%), integrated digital cameras (71%) and multi-media messaging (67%). Surprisingly, voice recorder has taken the fourth place for must-have phone feature (61%).

Japanese consumers appear to be the undoubted leaders in sophisticated features they currently have on their handsets. 86% of respondents are having a color screen, 65% an in-built camera and nearly one-third (31%) video cameras. Following were users in Korea where (63%) have colour screen handsets, more than one third (36%) have integrated cameras and one in five (21%) have handsets with video cameras.

Hong Kong and China are the other two markets where fairly sophisticated handsets are leading the pack in terms of Bluetooth availability, usage of wireless headsets and voice-activated commands and dialing. 62% of Hong Kong mobile users also have speaker phone functionality. In developing markets like China, Philippines and India, wireless headsets, Bluetooth and MP3/CD player are relatively more important.