Misconceptions about the Mobile Market in Europe

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While I worked as a freelance PHP programmer, I started noticing an increasingly disturbing trend: Most of my North American clients tried to persuade me to start developing iPhone and Android applications as soon as I can. Generally, this could have been the best advice, if of course, I was living in the United States or Canada and I had the means to support myself while I was trying to learn how to program for mobile devices.

I tried to explain to them that unlike in North America, here in Europe, the mobile phones’ market is not that smart just yet, but I felt a strong resentment towards that idea, whenever I presented my views to most North Americans. Fortunately for me, the following article proves my point somewhat: Dip in Mobile Shipments to Western Europe Causes Concern.

This emphasises a few very important points, as far as I am concerned:

  • The European consumerism is not as widespread as I originally thought,
  • The Symbian operating system is slowly, but surely dying away, being replaced by Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android,
  • The smartphone market would not be shrinking forever and its peak is still to be experienced in Europe, therefore, this raises an interesting question about the feasibility and impact of the mobile applications mania in the US on the European consumer. As far as I could see, the European customers are much more conservative in using their mobile phones for something more than a phone and an email/Internet device than their US counterparts.

I would be really curious to read a professionally written research on this interesting topic. In the meantime, I’d like to hear your oppinions and comments on this.

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