27% of U.K. 3G subscribers download full track music

June 28, 2006

Twenty-seven percent of U.K. 3G mobile subscribers download full track music on their mobile phones, according to Telephia, the provider of performance measurement information to the mobile industry. The latest research from Telephia's Q2 2006 3G U.K. Report shows that full track music download penetration is more than 11 percentage points higher among 3G subscribers, as compared to non-3G subscribers at 16 percent. On average, 3G subscribers in the U.K. download 4.1 music tracks per month and spend an average of 8.3 hours per month listening to full track music on their mobile phones.

The study shows many 3G subscribers prefer to use their PC for storage and transfer of music to their mobile phone, revealing that the PC remains an essential part of the music experience. Forty-four percent of 3G subscribers would prefer to transfer computer music files that have been ripped from their home music collection to their phone. Nineteen percent would prefer to transfer computer music files that have been downloaded from a peer-to-peer or file-share site, and 14 percent prefer to transfer computer music files that were downloaded from a paid website. Only fourteen percent of 3G subscribers prefer to download full track music to their phones over the wireless network from an operator's site and/or a non-operator site. Moreover, 3G subscribers want seamless play capabilities for all music file formats, with 18 percent wanting their mobile devices to work with all music types, including MP3, Windows' WMA, and Apple's AAC.

"The popularity of downloading full track music on mobile phones has increased. But even with faster speeds on 3G and the growing amount of music content available through a wireless connection, subscribers still rely heavily on their personal computers as the central hub of their music activity," said Bernard Brenner, Director of New Products -- International, Telephia.