Nokia and T-Mobile in the lead

Almost 100% of the population aged 14-69 who use the internet at least weekly have a mobile phone. In Hungary, if it's mobile, it's Nokia; 40 per cent of internet users own a Nokia, and T-Mobile emerged as the winner in the competition between mobile phone operators. In addition to brand competition, the NRC's VMR survey also looked at the popularity of phone applications.

The mobile phone market has always been an attractive area for manufacturers. Over the years, we have seen several companies that saw potential in the industry enter the fray with or without alliances. The mobile phone market is characterised by constant innovation and investment, with manufacturers creating the demand and consumers responding with unabated intensity to new technological advances and advanced applications.

In Hungary, as in previous years, Nokia devices from Finland still account for the largest share of internet users, at 40%. In recent years, Sony Ericsson has also made a visible impact. Its strong development and communication activities may be one of the reasons why it is in second place, just behind Nokia with 23 percent. Only one manufacturer other than those mentioned above has reached double figures; the third place on the podium goes to Samsung, with 16% of net users owning a mobile phone of this type.

A VMR survey also highlighted that some brands of appliances are typically bought by men, while others are more typically bought by women. Sony-Ericsson internet users are typically male, with 63% of users being of the stronger sex. The opposite is true for Samsung.

While we do not yet know what impact iPhone sales will have on the current rankings and ratios, we can guess at the impact on competition between operators. A significant proportion of mobile internet users, currently 46%, are T-Mobile customers. Pannon is second with 36 percent and Vodafone third with 28 percent. As some respondents have both their own and a company mobile phone, they may be customers of several operators at the same time.

When it comes to mobile phone use, the VMR research found that most people still use mobile phones only for their basic functions. For innovative services such as internet access via mobile phone, the proportion of regular users is low. Only 3% of internet users with a mobile device use this feature frequently.

< A letölthető mobiltelefon alkalmazások közül a csengőhangok a legnépszerűbbek. A mobillal rendelkező 14-69 éves netezők 36 százaléka vette már igénybe ennek internetes letöltését. Ezt követi a mobiltelefonos játékok (19 százalék), majd pedig a kép vagy videó (18 százalék) letöltése. A célcsoport 46 százaléka mondja azt, hogy online még soha nem töltött le szolgáltatást telefonjára. The survey was carried out by NRC Market Research in the first half of 2008, with 10,000 respondents interviewed online. The database was weighted with TNS offline data, so it is representative of the Hungarian population aged 14-69 years for key demographic characteristics (gender, age, education, type of municipality, frequency of internet use, location and type of home access). Visitor Media Research (VMR) is Hungary's largest and most comprehensive online tracking survey, conducted by NRC Piackutató Kft. and TNS for Hungarian media buyers, media owners and companies.