SCOTTSDALE,USA: The next cellphone “killer feature” is not enough to create competitive advantage.  Consumers demand applications that leverage a combined set of features and improved performance to enhance user experiences, according to market research firm, In-Stat.

“iPhone’s success has been a bellwether driving users expectations for cellphones,”  says Frank Dickson, In-Stat analyst. “Touch screens and QWERTY keyboards, as well as accelerated adoption of open source operating systems have combined to create an innovation environment not seen in the cellphone market of the past.”

Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

• Media features continue to penetrate the market and the rise of social networking has helped drive demand for integrated cameras.
• Survey respondents with MP3 players are up 17.3 percentage points from 2008 and respondents with video recorders are up 26.2 percentage points.
• Trends that arise from looking at survey results from each of the four years of the survey highlight the trends of features such as speakerphones migrating from features that they “willing to pay for” to features that are minimum expectations for a phone.
• Respondents voiced desires for improvement on the less complex features like better audio, better connectivity and simpler to us.

According respondents digital cameras, speaker phones and GPS were the top characteristics of the “Ideal Phone.”

Recent In-Stat research, Future Cellphones: Leveraging Building Blocks for Better Experiences (#IN0904432WH), identifies and measures users’ interest in features and capabilities of their current phones and what they want in their next phone.

The report provides survey results and analysis across a number of areas:

• Current and future cellphone form factors and input preferences.
  Users’ interest in specific capabilities and features.
• Emerging technology that will enable new features and capabilities
  Market segments that are leading adoption of new features.
• Vendors progress on bringing new phones, features and services to market.