Recently Morpace Research and Consulting did a study on 4G wireless and consumer sediment towards it. Surprisingly, the majority of Americans who currently own a 3G phone say that 4G service will have no effect on their next cell phone purchase. They also found out that on 34% of consumers are likely to upgrade to 4G at the end of their contract. One of the big reasons for this is believed to be the fact that 4G isn’t as widespread as 3G is across the US. Once the 4G rollout has covered the entire country then I believe these numbers will change.
One other suprising bit of information that came out of the study was that the lower income demographic ( less than $50,000) is more likely to upgrade to a 4G phone (47%) than the upper income earners (greater than $100,000) at 23%. The one thing that was found to remain steady across all income levels was the fact that the majority of people (60%) did not want to have to pay more for 4G service.
This was a online study done of 1,000 people. While this study may have been done nationally, I’d be interested to see how the same study would come back if done in 4G only area’s.
SOURCE: MORPACE RESEARCH