Most Canadians Use Mobile Phone For Talking, Uninterested In High-Tech Units

August 18, 2008 11:21 a.m. EST

Montreal, Quebec (AHN) - A U.S. telecommunication analyst said on Monday that while telecommunication companies are offering a wider range of mobile phone services, many Canadian handset owners use their cellular phones mainly for talking.

Ramon Llamas, senior research analysts of IDC, a global research firm that tracks consumer technology markets, told the Canadian Press, "I look at a lot of Joe and Jane consumers on main street anywhere and a lot of them are pretty content with just a regular phone... It does what they need it to do and basically that is just to make a phone call."

Llamas said because of this way of thinking, owners of smartphones like the BlackBerry and iPhone will be in the minority. "Some (telco) companies will say blasphemy to this, but not everyone is going to need a Blackberry, not everyone is going to need an iPhone, not everyone is going to need a Palm Treo," Llamas pointed out.

According to IDC's forecast, 1.3 billion mobile phones, including smartphones, will be shipped worldwide this year.

A Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association study said Americans topped the amount of time spent on their mobile units talking at 800 minutes a month, while Canadians came in second with 400 minutes, said Marc Choma of the CWTA.

Canada has 20.5 million mobile phone subscribers, but the country's cellphone penetration rate is only 63 percent. Even if the country is less inclined towards mobile phones compared to other industrialized nations and surveys show Canadians are not too keen on high-tech units, Telus Corporation of Canada announced last week it is thinking of adopting new wireless technology to allow the telco to sell GSM-only devices like the iPhone.

Telus and Bell Canada still use the Code Division Multiple Access technology, even if the Global System for Mobile Communication has become the global benchmark. Rogers Communications is Canada's only GSM carrier.