Mobile Convergence And The Consumer

According to Parks Associates, U.S. consumers have a favorable opinion of convergence in mobile devices. The marketing research and consulting firm reports that 41 percent of U.S. households own a camera phone and 21 percent own an MP3 music phone.

The company is launching a new consumer survey Mobile Entertainment: Platforms and Services to examine consumer interest in mobile service and platform convergence. They will also study future trends in usage and purchase patterns.

“The key challenge is to understand consumer perspectives in a fashion that will help handset manufacturers, portable device makers, entertainment companies, and service providers in formulating their strategies,” said Yuanzhe (Michael) Cai, director of broadband and gaming at iPhone announcement which created a massive amount of buzz in the market. Also major carriers are looking to integrate mobile platforms into their bundled offerings and provide fixed-mobile convergence applications. One example is