As the holiday shopping gears up, more people are shopping with their smartphones. Almost half of smartphone owners say they have already, or soon will, use their phones to do mobile shopping. A recent survey of 2,000 consumer technology users conducted by ABI, also showed that 53% use, or intend to use, their smartphones for mobile banking.
These numbers are similar studies from the MMA with 59% mobile shoppers over the Holidays and Nielsen 50% mobile researchers. IDC estimates $127 Billion in mobile sales.
"These are very exciting findings for merchants and service providers
promoting mobile commerce," says senior analyst Mark Beccue. "We see
mobile commerce in the US finally starting to achieve a mass market
appeal. It's not just smartphone owners: non-smartphone mobile users'
interest in mobile banking and commerce services, while lower than that
among smartphone owners, is also on the rise, with 17% of non-smartphone
users surveyed using or intending to use mobile banking services."
"These findings are part of a larger picture which quantifies smartphone
users' consistently higher use of a wide range of activities and
features, from mobile browsing through multimedia to navigation," notes
primary research director Janet Wise. "Smartphone users behave
differently. They score higher for all these activities 'because they
can' (their devices are capable), and also because they have the money,
resources, and time to do all these things."
Mobile market strategies practice director Neil Strother adds, "Even
advertising holds a growing attraction for mobile phone users, with
about one third of those smartphone owners surveyed saying they have
clicked on at least one mobile advertisement."
This survey was not just about mobile phones. ABI Research's "Consumer
Technology Barometer: Mobile (Q3 2010)" provides dynamic insight into
the constantly changing US consumer mobility market. In addition to
phones, it analyzes consumers' use of
MP3, media players, satellite radios, digital cameras, camcorders/video
recorders, and portable video game devices
This report is the first on a series that will track these consumer
activities and attitudes as they evolve. It is available in four ABI
Research Services.