AMTA defends another assault on the cellphone industry

Stuart Corner
Monday, 19 February 2007 15:17

Opinion and Analysis

Another one from Gecko, quoted in the AI research paper: "For example, the 'Gecko' phone designed specifically for children promotes a 'Gecko Skin' with the lines :Bling's my thing and if it were up to me, no self-respecting gecko should ever wear the same thing twice! Gecko Skins are this season's hottest accessory…they make your Gecko's personality shine through! I just love this yummy Bubblegum one! As my idol Paris, would say, "That's hot!". And the price is hot too, only $19.95!

The AI research paper is based on  Roy Morgan's Young Australians' survey  (ie it was not commissioned by AI, so they could not skew the questions to get the result they wanted. The AI paper draws on this and numerous other referenced sources.

If AMTA wants to argue with the findings it should put some decent resources into trying to counter them effectively not response with a knee-jerk release that completely fails to address the key claims.

However, when it came to industry initiatives to allow users to control spending, it was on more solid ground.

Let's face it we all know, anything that can possibly interest children that they can pester their parents to buy is already being marketed to them like crazy. There is no reason why we should expect cellphones to be treated any differently.