2 March 2009 944 views No Comment Email This Post

A recent survey of 19,000 people conducted by British consumer awareness organisation Reevoo.com found that in general terms, people are dissatisfied with mobile phone touch screen. 226 different mobile phones were reviewed, with most respondents finding that mobile phone manufacturers attempting to replicate the impressive display of the Apple iPhone have fallen short of the mark.

Rating the phones on all of their various features, reviewers found that only two of the top ten rated phones featured touch screen, five out of ten of the bottom ranked phones used a touch screen. The Apple iPhone and the LG Renoir were the top rated mobile phones from the survey, both receiving ratings of 8.3 out of 10.

Reevoo’s mobile phone category manager was quoted as saying “Manufacturers are keen to jump on the touchscreen bandwagon but most of the current efforts are just not pushing the rights buttons for shoppers. We love the look of touchscreen phones, and the ability to watch videos on the large screen, but touchscreen phones are hard to get right and many shoppers are complaining that the interfaces are just too fiddly.”

One of the units to cop a slapping was the new BlackBerry storm, which has tried to jump onto the touchscreen bandwagon, trying to break into the touchscreen market where iPhone has already sold over 17 million units.

Many of the survey respondents were highly critical of the touchscreen ‘virtual keyboards’, calling them “rubbish”. One stated he could “… always employ a five-year-old with small fingers …” to do his typing.

Interestingly, the survey ranked “style” as the most important feature of a mobile phone, followed by compactness, camera quality and being good for music – all of which feature heavily in the Apple iPhone.