Jordan's Umniah with only 20% of the local market share delivers highest customer satisfaction; Egypt's Vodafone and UAE's Etisalat come a close second, followed by KSA's Mobily
June 25, 2007, Dubai, UAE - A landmark survey conducted by Maktoob Research (www.maktoob-research.com), the full-service online research unit of Maktoob.com (www.maktoob.com), among respondents in the UAE, KSA, Egypt and Jordan has revealed that smaller and newer cellular operators are vying neck to neck and in certain cases surpassing larger operators in significant customer satisfaction markers.
The online poll, conducted by Maktoob Research in May 2007, canvassed the opinions of 3669 cellular subscribers of various nationalities, aged 18 and above, across four countries with 1260 respondents participating from Egypt, 1131 from Jordan, 895 from KSA and 383 from the UAE.
It covered topics ranging from levels of satisfaction related to mobile operator services, types of subscriptions, preferred brands of mobile phones, preferred features in mobile phones, preferred mobile content, and fears and concerns related to e-commerce.
"We set out on this study to determine what residents in the Middle East truly feel about the services that are being offered to them by local cellular operators", explained Tamara Deprez, Maktoob Research Director. "In the process, we've also discovered preferences of people in this region towards services offered by different mobile phone brands and what features they appreciate the most in their mobile phones."
Among the key findings of the survey are:
While Jordan's Umniah (75%), Egypt's Vodafone (74%) and KSA's Mobily (70%) beat local competitors to become the highest scorers in overall customer satisfaction in their own countries, some of these, notably Mobily and Umniah do not hold the largest market shares. Mobily ranks second in the KSA while Umniah with 20% of the market share ranks third. According to the report, 74% of UAE's Etisalat users were satisfied with its services.[T1]
73% of respondents in the UAE claim to be satisfied with services offered by their mobile operators while only 64% of respondents in Jordan stated the same. 63% of respondents claimed to be satisfied in Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Nokia is predominantly the most preferred mobile phone manufacturer (overall 80%). It is followed by Sony Ericsson (overall 6%) and Motorola and Samsung (overall 4% each).
The ten most important mobile features as rated by respondents were a camera (66%), bluetooth (64%), SMS service (60%), a clock (54%), the vibrating alert (53%), an MP3 player (52%), 3G connectivity (50%), call holding (47%), GPRS/WAP connectivity (47%) and the MMS service (47%). Respondents in the UAE rated the MP3 player in a mobile phone 4th most important among the ten most important features while respondents in Saudi Arabia found it the least important.
79% of users across the four countries are not currently subscribed to any mobile content services. When asked whether they would be interested in receiving mobile content in future, 48% agreed. Surprisingly, when asked whether they would be willing to pay for the services, only 5% of UAE respondents agreed. No respondents from any other country were willing to pay.
Breaking/latest news, Islamic content, business, sport, computers, stock market, financial services, romance/love, weather and gossip are the top contents that respondents currently subscribe to. Respondents interested in receiving content in future, rated breaking/latest news, Islamic content, computers, weather, romance/love, sport, music, business and movies as their top preferences.
The top three e-commerce related activities performed online are downloading of software (55%), multimedia downloads (39%) and making online calls (35%). 35% of UAE respondents make calls despite the VOIP ban that's in place.
Only 21% respondents thought the internet was a safe place to execute financial transactions. Meanwhile, only 31% respondents felt absolutely unafraid to divulge their credit card details online.
As the telecommunications industry forges ahead with newer technology and ground-breaking innovation, the Maktoob Research Study provides a valuable insight into the needs of cellular users in important markets in the Middle East.
-Ends- About Maktoob Research:
Maktoob Research, member of ESOMAR, the leading international association of research professionals, combines the region's largest online consumer panel with the latest in international online research standards, to provide marketing professionals with better insights on consumer needs and expectations. Focussing primarily on the Middle East and North Africa, Maktoob Research offers a global panel covering approximately 2 million Arabs in 30 countries.
About Maktoob.com:
Maktoob.com was founded in the year 2000 as the world's first Arabic/English email service. In a few years, Maktoob has grown to become a full-service web portal, offering world-class communications and information tools that empower the Arab Internet user. More than just the best and most popular Arabic/English email service in the world, Maktoob.com offers everything from chat to discussion forums, from e-cards to mobile downloads, from news to the latest jokes and everything in between.
Maktoob's main mission is to maintain and grow its position as the world's leading Arab Internet portal by constantly offering its users a unique experience and by providing them with new services and products that encourage open communications and community building.
For more information about Maktoob, please visit http://www.maktoobgroup.com/maktoob_en.html
About Maktoob Group:
Maktoob Group comprises a network of leading online media companies and websites. In addition to the Arab world's leading portal, www.maktoob.com, the Maktoob Group network includes Souq.com (www.souq.com) auctions and marketplace, Araby.com (www.Araby.com) the first Arabic search engine, and cashU (www.cashu.com) the electronic payment solution, in addition to several other leading sites and services in the region. In 2005, Abraaj Capital, a leading regional private equity firm, acquired a stake in Maktoob.
For more information about the Group, please visit www.maktoobgroup.com
For further media information, please contact:
Sue-Ellen Lazrado
Headline Public Relations
Tel: 009714 - 2289655
Email: sue@headlinepr.com
For more information regarding the products and services of Maktoob Research, please contact
Tamara Deprez
tel: +971 4 3913640
info@maktoob-research.com
visit the website www.maktoob-research.com.
[T1]Total satisfaction in the UAE is mentioned in the next paragraph.
© Press Release 2007
