Professional and financial services company KPMG have released their fifth Consumers and Convergence survey exploring consumer behaviour in a converged world. A world in which voice, data and video services are accessible through a single device.

The survey was concluded in November 2008 and was based on the responses of 4190 international users across various demographic factors ranging from income, race, and geographical location.

The good news is that South Africa is not the laggard we think it is in the international convergence environment. While price and access is a definite issue South African consumers utilise music downloading and instant messaging services more than their international contemporaries.

Some key findings concerning South Africa surveyed users include:

•    82% of SA users make use of instant messaging services like MXit compared 32% of international users.

•    86% of SA users have never switched service providers compared to 82% of international users.

•    SA users are online for an average of 5.5 hours a week compared to an international average of 21.5 hours a week.

These results clearly reflect the constraints and opportunities within the South African convergence environment; more dependence on our phones but higher costs attached. Other interesting results show that South Africans download more music, shop online a lot less and are more concerned with privacy than international users.

"This demonstrates that in South Africa, our phone users are almost entirely dependent on their mobiles as the primary communication device" says KPMG\'s Frank Rizzo, managing partner for IT Advisory.

A noteworthy finding from the survey is the fact that South Africans are a little behind international trends towards unbundling of mobile content packages (data, voice, music etc.), with some 62% of South African respondents viewing bundling as convenient. This is despite a decline in international subscriptions to bundled services, from 47% in 2007 to 39% in 2008, due to price consideration by consumers as there are often hidden costs involved with bundles.

The survey is available online at www.kpmg.co.za.