On June 6th, Nokia has released the results of a global study they did to find out what else consumers do with their cell phone. This study allows them to get a feel of the future of what they call ‘digital convergence’.
Digital convergence is a term used to describe the current trend to combine multiple mobile devices into one, such as a digital camera, a PDA, a video game console and a mobile phone to give the multifunctional cell phones we have today.
According to the study commissioned by Nokia, 44% of camera phone owners use their cell phone as their main digital camera. This number somewhat contradicts the results of the poll Lifehacker did: 83.4% of Lifehacker’s readers are not using their phone as their main digital camera or prefer to use their digital camera instead.
The study also reveals that 66% of the respondents think their cell phone will eventually replace their portable MP3 player, and 50% think their mobile phone will allow them to interact with their home electronics.
If we compare web browsing between USA and Japan, 36% of the respondents in the US said they were using their phone to browse the web monthly, while in Japan 36% of the respondents use their phone to browse the web daily. My opinion on this matter goes the same way as the Nokia Cell Phone Blog: I don’t know how it goes for Japan, but one of the reasons I don’t browse the web from my cell phone is because of the costs involved to transfer data with my carrier. With Bell Canada, we are talking over $20 for 1MB of data transferred, this is ridiculous.
In my opinion, digital convergence is a good thing. However, if all your devices are combined into one, you’re not able to change just the camera. You have to change the whole cell phone, including all the other integrated devices, which costs you more and isn’t really necessary if you are already satisfied with them.
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