About half of all prospective smartphone buyers don't get one because of the glut of models, Best Buy noted today in a study. Of those who don't already own a smartphone, 47 percent said they were "too confused" by the sheer number of phones and range of features. Roughly 63 percent of all those studied didn't own one because they thought it was too expensive; 39 percent of those who don't own one specifically hated the shopping experience. The retail chain also hoped to disabuse notions that smartphones are primarily bought for work-oriented purposes. Over half of those that own that class of device, at 58 percent, want to play music; 41 percent want social networking and 36 percent value games.
An unusual gender split also exists for apps, Best Buy adds. Women almost always valued apps more than men. They were also more likely than men to value built-in features like SMS messaging (71 percent versus 46 percent), photography (55 percent versus 30 percent), music (44 percent to 25 percent) and GPS (51 percent versus 33 percent). Men only valued calendars more than women did, with 46 percent putting a value on the organizer where 39 percent of women put the same importance on the feature.
While Best Buy doesn't try to explain the findings itself, they play directly into media-friendly phones like the iPhone while downplaying devices running platforms like Windows Mobile that often downplay media features and favor calendaring and other work chores.
http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/06/30/bbuy.on.smartphone.fears/
