3G mobile phone technology offers a wide range of high-speed services, including video calls and multimedia messaging (MMS), e-mail, video games, picture messaging and live information services.
The study was the first such survey of 3G use in the UK and showed that the combination of still and video cameras on 3G phones, and their high-speed data transfer capability, could inspire a generation of users.
This generation has been variously dubbed the iGeneration, Generation Y, the Net Generation and even Echo Boomers. The study, however, termed it Generation C (C for Content), because it found that the 10 groups of friends between the ages of 16-35 who participated mainly used the technology to create content to share.
The study identified three types of user: the Social Gatekeeper, Piratopian and High Street Hedonist. The social gatekeeper was the hub of a social network and used the 3G mobile to keep their group of friends up to date. The piratopian used the 3G mobile to make short videos and broadcasts to share in the group, while the High Street hedonist used the phone to show off or get instant opinions from friends on new purchases.
A 3G phone also offers bloggers the option to instantly post new content to their websites. However, the researchers found that as well as being used as a tool to document their lives, the 3G phone was used as a counterpoint to shopping and socializing.
The participants were not charged for the services they used during the six weeks of the study. Alfred Tong, one of the study's authors, admitted that free access encouraged heavy use, but he still claimed the study provides a glimpse into the future.
Analyst Ben Wood, research vice president, Gartner, remains skeptical, however. He says that although he welcomed the study, most mobile phone users are still mainly concerned about the looks, cost and battery life of their phones above all else.
"What we have seen happen historically is if people start to use new services, especially in some demographic groups, they are very viral and will spread," Wood says. "If you had sat in a focus group about text messaging 15 years ago and I told you that soon we would be sending billions of these each year you would have said I was mad."
Erik Kruse, of Ericsson Consumer and Enterprise Lab, agrees.
"The study is interesting and presents an exciting glimpse of the potential of 3G, not least because it looked at groups of friends who already interact socially and have their own social rituals and natural communication," he says. "But taking out costs makes it less useful in predicting consumer behavior in general.
"There are so many factors that you cannot control in reality, but an understanding of the deeper significance of the mobile phone in communication and lifestyles in social groups, and of social trends - as this study shows - means we can predict with more accuracy than when, for example, text messaging was introduced."
