Harris Interactive results surveying people about cell phone use and payments found that:
Nearly 4 out of 5 U.S. adults (77%) receive bills from cell phone
and credit card companies, and of these adults, the majority (57%)
trust credit cards companies more than cell phone companies when it
comes to accurately billing them for a payment;
Older adults are significantly more likely than their younger
counterparts to trust credit card companies more than cell phone
companies (65% of those ages 55+ vs. 52% of those ages 18-34);
93% of U.S. adults (93%) own a cell phone, and nearly half of these
adults (45%) think it's at least somewhat safe to make a purchase
through their cell phone with 26% saying they think it's fairly or very
safe to do so;
Assuming it was safe to make purchases through cell phones, nearly
half of cell phone owners (46%) would be willing to make purchases this
way.
Of those who would be willing to make purchases through their
cellphone, (75%) would be willing to buy entertainment items, such as
movie/event tickets (58%), music (41%), mobile video or TV content
(24%) and games (34%).
Many would also purchase food/drink items (68%) such as pizza (59%),
fast food (42%), and/or coffee (25%), and over half (55%) would be
willing to purchase hotel rooms (43%) and/or tickets for travel (40%)
this way;
Other interesting data collected during the survey were more specific to gender, age, education, and income, such as:
Men who own a cell phone are more likely than their female
counterparts to think it is safe to make purchases through their cell
phones (50% of men think it's at least somewhat safe vs. 39% of women);
Younger cell phone owning adults are also more likely than older
counterparts to think it's at least somewhat safe to make purchases
(59% of those ages 18-34 vs. 34% of those ages 55+);
Those who own a cell phone and have a college degree or higher are
more likely than those who own a cell phone and have a high school
degree or less to think it's at least somewhat safe (50% vs. 38%
respectively);
Adults who receive bills from both cell phone and credit cards
companies and make $75,000 per year or more are more likely than their
counterparts who make less than $35,000 per year to trust credit cards
companies more than cell phone companies when it comes to accurately
billing them for payment (65% vs. 53% respectively);
"There's clearly a large U.S. population of consumers open to the
idea of making purchases via their cell phones," said Andy Kleitsch,
CEO Billing Revolution. "With consumers getting more comfortable
navigating the web from mobile phones, mobile commerce is poised for
explosive growth, and consumers are very much leading the charge in
this direction."
The survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris
Interactive on behalf of Billing Revolution from April 29 to May 1,
2009 among 2,029 adults ages 18 and older, of whom 1,883 own cell
phones. Results were weighted as needed to reflect the composition of
the U.S. population of adults ages 18+ using targets for region, age
within gender, education, household income, race/ethnicity, and
propensity to be online.