MUMBAI: For mobile users all across Asia, it's the snazzy features (the snazzier the better) that matter.

These are the findings of information company TNS' annual Asia Telecoms Index report issued today. With 18 per cent of the nearly 9,000 people questioned planning to change their mobile phone or buy their first phone within the next six months, manufacturers of handsets offering the latest slew of multi-media features will be pleased to hear that it is just such features that came top of respondents' wish lists.

The 2004 Asia Telecom Index found that in India, multi-coloured screens and speaker phones are currently the most popular handset features amongst current and future wireless subscribers, and 72 per cent and 60 per cent respectively say that they would ensure their next mobile had these features.

In India, the study was conducted in the 8 major cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, through face-to-face interviews among a sample base of 1843 respondents - SEC A, B, C, males and females, in the age group of 16 - 69 years.

Looking regionally across Asia Pacific's current and future wireless subscribers then the features that most respondents would seek in their next mobile phone are colour screens (77 per cent), integrated digital cameras (71 per cent) and multi-media messaging (67 per cent). Surprisingly, given its basic nature, voice recorder came in as the fourth most popular, must-have phone feature (61 per cent).

"Colour screens, cameras, MMS capability and voice recording are universally desirable, but differences do exist between consumers in developed and less developed markets." said Hanis Harun, TNS regional director for Telecoms Asia Pacific. "In developed markets like Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Australia, video phones and PC connectivity come higher up consumers' wish list. While in developing markets like China, Philippines and India, wireless headsets, Bluetooth and MP3/CD player are relatively more important. It is important that handset manufacturers and service providers understand the 'hot buttons' of consumers in different markets and create the ideal handset and applications bundles accordingly.

Perhaps not so remarkably, it was Japanese consumers that emerged as the undisputed leaders in terms of the sophistication of features they currently have on their handsets with 86 per cent of respondents having a colour screen, 65 per cent an in-built camera and nearly one third (31 per cent) video cameras. Following a close second, were users in Korea where nearly twice as many people (63 per cent) than in China (34 per cent) have colour screen handsets, more than one third (36 per cent) have integrated cameras and one in five (21 per cent) have handsets with video cameras.

Hong Kong and China are the other two markets where fairly sophisticated handsets are being used leading the pack in terms of Bluetooth availability, usage of wireless headsets and voice-activated commands and dialing. 62 per cent of Hong Kong mobile users also have speaker phone functionality, well ahead of the rest of Asia. Penetration levels for sophisticated features like Bluetooth, PC connectivity and smart phone features and software were found to be relatively lower for India, below 5 per cent vis-à-vis other countries' surveyed.

"The growth story in Asian wireless telecoms has been and continues to be remarkable. As a hub for technology and a home to both some of the world's highest mobile penetration and biggest potential mobile telephone markets, the region's position is unlike any other. For handset manufacturers and network providers, these latest findings bode very well as it's clear that even in countries where current networks cannot support sophisticated multi-media applications, interest runs high and consumers are at the ready. The task will now be delivering these services which consumer want, and to a high standard." Hanis concluded.