Chucking at the perception of “4G”
Posted By RichC on August 12, 2011
In the tech and gadget world, few devices are attracting buyers like smartphones and their grown-up counterparts the “touchscreen” tablets. Besides deciding on which carrier offers the best price/service, consumers chose a mobile OS and the manufacturer of their device. One of the most confusing decisions we make is “4G” — a loosely defined higher speed connection for data. After reading a retrevo.com article it looks obvious that quite a few consumers who are forking over hefty dollars have no idea that they aren’t running at 4G speeds (particularly iPhone an Blackberry users). Another point I would add is that even users paying for 4G capable phones and service aren’t regularly using the higher data speeds due to a carriers footprint AND often times purposely in an attempt to preserve a phones battery life (turning off the phones 4G radio). How many smartphone owners do you know that are clueless?
A Third of iPhone Owners Mistakenly Think Their Phones Have 4G
Maybe the “4” in the iPhone 4 name gives iPhone owners (34%) the false impression that they already own a 4G phone but the fact is Apple doesn’t offer a 4G phone at the moment. Coincidentally, a suspiciously large percentage of Android and BlackBerry owners may be suffering from the same delusion. BlackBerry owners (24%) are almost as confused as iPhone owners since RIM doesn’t currently offer a 4G phone. At least some Android owners could be answering correctly as Android 4G phones like the HTC Evo 4G or Samsung Infuse 4G have been available for some time. If nothing else this large number of “misinformed” phone owners serves to emphasize the fact that consumers are quite confused about 4G.
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