The future of
mobile telephony is closely linked to
services. Users are required to purchase new
phones with new technical features for the large-scale diffusion of service platforms and the adoption of increasingly advanced services. The
survey in this
paper indicates, however, that services are not such an important reason for
consumer purchases of new mobile phones. In this paper, the authors have chosen a different approach, in which they look at the reasons consumers have bought their recent mobile phones in Finland. Instead of relying on the hopes and expectations of the future, they focus on individual consumer
interpretations of past behavior. The paper, first, briefly describes the peculiarities of the Finnish mobile market.Then it looks at how the survey was carried out and what kinds of results were obtained. Finally it discusses the relevance of the results for the evolution of mobile services. The paper includes tables. Table of Contents: Abstract Introduction Case: Finland Panel Survey and Methodology Top Reasons for Purchasing a New Mobile Phone Consumer Interpretations Conclusions and Discussions References