Reality Check: Techno rebels? No. Conservative and wary of gadgetry? Yes.
The mobile industry tends to picture adolescents as radical, early adopters with a propensity for reckless experimentation and anarchical behaviour. The latest handset offerings by Nokia, Motorola, Samsung etc build on the belief that today’s youth want the latest high tech features including MMS and mobileTV.
The mobileYouth 2006 report challenges the idea of the adolescent as a trend-chaser, without permanent values, loyalty or attention-span. Instead it reintroduces you to today’s mobile youth: conservative, cautious, and tightly peer-regulated, whose rejection of “convention”
• 83% of UK youth were more likely to buy the handset that their friends had rather than the latest gadgetry from the manufacturers
• 87% said the views of their peers were so important that they would not choose a product or handset that was “too different”, “too fancy” or risking group alienation
Reality Check: Why are teens more likely to buy a basic V3 than a TV enabled phone?
Older teens spend proportionally more on mobile services than any other age group: about 20% of their disposable income. Within the late teen peer group, however, group membership is more important than status. Late teens prefer mobiles which reinforce their identity as group members rather than highlight their individual distinctiveness or purchasing power.
They are therefore unlikely to seek out phones with unusual or advanced features because it may isolate them from the peer group. For example, the report refers to the feature-laden Samsung P900 phone, which was the first T-DMB mobile TV enabled phone to be released in Europe. Despite its unique and technically advanced capacities, it failed to connect with young consumers.
Wireless World Forum’s 2006 mobileYouth report offers a wealth of actionable advice to help the mobile and media sectors better understand the under 25 market. The report features insight from 55 markets globally, focusing on youth and how mobile media fits into their lifestyles.
