Ramsey: Poll Finds Radio Listeners Don't Look For FM In Mobile Phones

Where's The Consumer Interest?

Radio industry analyst and consultant MARK RAMSEY, in conjunction with VIP RESEARCH, created a poll which found that a large majority of radio listeners 10-54 do not seek out mobile or smartphones with FM capability. They indicated that they purchase phones for other reasons and that having built-in radios doesn't really matter.

When asked "When you last shopped for a mobile phone, did you specifically look for a phone that contains an FM radio or not?" ... 88% said "No," 4% said "Yes" and 8% said it didn't apply. When asked why they didn't look for mobile phones that contained FM radios, 83% said they wanted a particular phone regardless of whether it had FM, and the remainder weren't looking for their phone to play radio. Of those who did look for phones with FM radios, 83% ultimately bought one, 28% didn't and 3% didn't know.

"FM radios can literally be built into anything," RAMSEY wrote in his column. "If you built it into a toaster, consumers might well say they’d 'use' it. That’s not the issue. The issue -- from the standpoint of manufacturers who must safeguard the feature set and user experiences and unique selling propositions of their devices -- is what will motivate consumers to purchase their device over any other.

"Now you might argue 'well, sure some mobile phones contain FM radios, but not that many'," he continued. "Isn't this the same supply-based logic that confounded the radio industry at the time HD radio was introduced? The notion that 'if we build it they will come' was wrong then and it’s wrong now. And when it comes to devices and electronics, it’s wrong -- period."

Read the entire column here. View as a video here.

[What do you think? Would FM in mobile devices help radio, or is it just not that important. Please share your thoughts with the ALL ACCESS community below.]

« see more Net News