An asknet survey of 400 smartphone users has found that consumers are frustrated by the cost, accessibility, and
mechanisms supporting mobile e-commerce, in
spite of a strong consumer demand for personal and business mobile
applications.
The survey, conducted
simultaneously in Boston and San Francisco in late 2009, found that
despite building consumer demand for applications, over a third (38%)
of smartphone users said they were frustrated with the high cost of
applications. A similar percentage (29%) said they were uncomfortable
entering credit card details for mobile purchasing. Overall, when asked
why they didn't buy applications - including music, games, business
applications or consumer software - for their phone, 34% said that it
was just 'not worth the time or effort'.
In the survey, almost half of respondents (45%)
said they had never bought applications or software for their
smartphone. Of the 55 percent that had bought software or applications
for their smartphone, over four-fifths (87%) had spent less than $50 in
a year, 9% had spent $51-100, 3% had spent $101-150, and 1% said they
spent more than $150 a year on apps and downloads.
When asked
about the downloading and purchasing habits of those that had bought
items, 61% had bought music in the last year, 41% had bought games, 35%
ringtones 33% news, 29% GPS/location-based software and 27% had bought
business applications.
The survey also revealed significant
consumer demand for specific applications: when asked what they would
like to buy more of for their phone, 63% said they would spend more
money on music, 51% said they would buy more business applications, 48%
wanted access to GPS applications, and 37% said they wanted to purchase
games.
In terms of smartphone
models owned, the asknet survey found that RIM's BlackBerry and the
Apple iPhone topped the list, with more than half (53%) of those polled
in Boston owning a BlackBerry, 37% owning iPhones, and 10% owning other
brands. On the West Coast 41% owned other models, a third (34%) owned a
RIM BlackBerry and a quarter (25%) owned an Apple iPhone.
The top
three wireless network providers were AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile,
with AT&T leading in responses (43%) followed by Verizon (31%) and
T-Mobile (19%) across the entire survey group.
In late October 2009,
analyst firm ABI Research revised its forecast of the mobile commerce
market's sales for this year upwards from $544 million which it
predicted in January 2009 to $750 million, representing an 117%
year-on-year growth rate. It expects sales to surpass $1 billion in
2010. However, despite obvious growth, there is evidence that many
consumers are still not convinced.
asknet is a leading
provider of e-commerce distribution solutions for leading software
companies including DivX, F-Secure, Nero, and Panda Security. Since
1995, asknet has seen consistent growth, and in Q3 2009, asknet
announced an increase in gross profits of 2.4 million Euros, an 11%
increase from Q3 2008. asknet's Mobile Shopping Cart solution is
designed to let customers purchase and download products or software
directly by the mobile phone, safely, securely and without exposing
credit card details.
F-Secure has successfully used asknet's
Mobile Shopping Cart to sell its mobile security software through its
mobile shop since it was first implemented in December 2007.