Four out of ten business users in Nordic region use mobile e-mail

Espoo, Finland - For the third year in a row, Nokia and TeliaSonera, in association with Gallup, have conducted a survey to investigate the use of mobile e-mail and interest in the service. The survey indicated that 37 percent of business users in the Nordic region use mobile e-mail when they are away from the office. More time for family and friends, and better customer service, were stated to be important advantages. Nine out of ten said, for example, that mobile e-mail allows them to provide faster and better service to customers.

This year’s survey also focused more closely on the managing director (MD) category. As many as 44 percent of the male business executives in the survey responded that they are already using mobile e-mail today for communications when they are away from the office (34 percent of female MDs). A lot indicates that usage by female MDs will soon be more widespread - this is because 60 percent who do not use mobile e-mail today believe they will start using the service within a year. Six out of ten business executives stated that more time for family and friends was one of the most important advantages of mobile e-mail.

“From the survey we can clearly see that mobile e-post has made its breakthrough on a broad front. The fact that almost four out of ten respondents are already using mobile e-mail today, when they are away from the office, is an impressive figure. It is also interesting to note that as many as 46 percent of the women managing directors in the survey use mobile e-mail today to check their messages on their phone several times a day. That tells us a lot about the importance of the service,” says Heidi Lax, Enterprise Solutions Director for the Nordic region at Nokia.

Nokia and TeliaSonera have both worked actively for many years to make it as easy as possible for customers to start using mobile e-mail. Over the past few years, the two companies have also seen a dramatic increase in the number of users. When Nokia and TeliaSonera surveyed business users in Norway, Sweden and Denmark two years ago, 14 percent of the respondents stated that they used mobile e-mail. Today, only two years later, the corresponding figure for the Nordic region is 37 percent.

“This is incredibly strong growth and we are seeing how more and more people are discovering the potential of mobile e-mail. We are also seeing that many mobile e-mail users believe they can work in a more flexible manner and have more time over for family and friends, which is a pleasing trend to see,” says Indra Åsander, head of Mobile Content Services at TeliaSonera.

Good manners important for mobile mailers
Despite the strong interest in mobile e-mail, and the fact that so many people send and receive e-mail on their mobile phones today, it is obvious that there are many occasions when it is not considered acceptable to use the service. For example, 74 percent of the survey respondents said it is not acceptable to use mobile e-mail when you are playing with your children. On the other hand, three out of ten in the survey said that it is alright to use mobile e-mail when they are in a meeting with their boss.