With Smartphone-Assiste...

This morning, Nielsen is putting hard numbers to how consumers like to shop with their smartphones, backing up trends we already suspected to be the case. In particular, the new report examines how consumers use their phones when shopping out there in the real world (what’s that?) – using phones to compare prices, scan barcodes and even redeem coupons. Not surprisingly, how you use your phone has a lot to do with where you’re shopping and what you’re shopping for, says Nielsen. The trends are sort of obvious, but there are some interesting bits to be pulled out of the data. For starters, mobile coupons are most popular at grocery stores, (41% of mobile shoppers said they used coupons there), department stores (41%), and clothing stores (39%). At electronics stores, the majority (73%) read reviews, compare prices (71%), and scan QR codes (57%). It seems the higher the purchase price, the more likely it is that users will whip out their phone to shop around. Or perhaps electronics buyers are just a bit more smartphone-savvy than the rest, happily scanning QR codes and the like? Something notable here, perhaps – assuming that, for many of these shoppers, price is the reason for the extra research, it initially seems somewhat odd that furniture shoppers don’t do the same. Only 19% read reviews, and a paltry 5% scan a QR code. And yet, their big-ticket purchases often cost more than a new HDTV. Why is that? Well, besides the fact that furniture is a more personal purchase, like clothing, it’s mainly because the exact same Ethan Allen sofa isn’t going to be found at a Ashley store for less. But it would be interesting if there were apps that could scan a furniture barcode or “see” a photo you snap then show you  similar sofas at nearby stores or online as well as their prices. (Is someone building that? Because I’d use it today. I hate my sofa.)  Unless you’re not in the income bracket where cost is not a concern, this seems to be an unfilled niche. One of the top reasons why people don’t buy furniture they fall in love with is because they feel the need to shop around. Back to the report. It’s not surprising to see minimal usage of the various smartphone technologies at fast-service or low-ticket item stores like convenience stores, dollar stores and office supplies stores, but it’s somewhat interesting to see moderate use at mass merchandisers (Walmart, Costo, etc.). Even though those stores appeal to users because of their low prices, it’s apparent that not all shoppers are convinced that they’re getting the best deal: 34% read reviews and 31% scan QR codes at these outlets. Given the right pricing on the right products, it seems department stores, electronics retailers and online shops can woo customers from the Walmart-sized chains, when it comes to higher priced goods. With brick-and-mortar stores turning into Amazon’s showroom, it’s more important than ever that merchants offer in-store shoppers some other advantage besides low prices. Expect the new crop of customer loyalty startups to have a big role in framing what that advantage might be.

Study: Our Smartphones ...

Do you regularly use your cell phone to coordinate meetings, solve an unexpected problem, decide which restaurant to eat at, look up the score of a sporting event, check traffic, call help in an emergency situation or find information to help settle an argument? These activities make you a “just-in-time” cell user according to the latest study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project . According to this report, 70% of all cell phone owners in the U.S. and 86% of smartphone owners have used their phones to perform at least one of these activities over the last 30 days. The argument here is that our rapid adoption of smartphones is changing our relationship with information and the way we communicate with each other. Here is evidence the Pew report cites for how this access to information is “creating a new culture of real-time information seekers and problem solvers:” 41% of cell phone owners used their phone in the previous 30 days to coordinate a meeting or get-together. 35% used their phone to solve an unexpected problem they or someone else had encountered in the previous 30 days. 30% used their phone in the previous 30 days to decide whether to visit a business, such as a restaurant 27% used their phone in the previous 30 days to get information to help settle an argument they were having. 23% used their phone in the previous 30 days to look up a score of a sporting event. 20% used their phone in the previous 30 days for up-to-the-minute traffic or public transit information to find the fastest way to get somewhere. 19% used their phone to get help in an emergency situation Men, says the report, are more likely to use their phones to look up information to settle an argument than women (31% vs. 22%) and more affluent and more highly educated users are more likely to look up information on their phones than those with lower incomes and those without college degrees. The Pew study also notes that 65% of smartphone owners now use their phones to get turn-by-turn navigation or directions while driving. Overall, none of these results should really come as a surprise to anybody who has ever owned a smartphone. Of course people are using their phones to look up traffic information and check a restaurant’s Yelp reviews. Still, it’s interesting to see some relatively hard data that shows how quickly this easy access to information has become a natural part of daily life for so many of us.

Research: $1.5 Trillion...

The mobile industry will reel in more than $1.5 trillion in revenues in 2012, with 28 percent of that, $400 billion, attributable to mobile data, according to new research out from analyst Chetan Sharma . He notes that within the revenues expected for mobile data, non-messaging revenues led by apps, mobile web browsing and streaming media have finally overtaken those of traditional messaging like SMS as smartphone usage continues to grow. Non-messaging, he says, will account for 53 percent of the total: in other words, some $212 billion will come from apps, music and video streaming, games and mobile web browsing. Still voice is still accounting for a huge part of the value in mobile, and “OTT” services provided by third parties — be they Apple or others — are still only a small piece of the pie: Sharma’s report also notes in the U.S. smartphones now account for 69 percent of all mobiles sold — the highest rate with the global average at about half that, 32 percent. He notes that some operators are even more bullish than that and expect 90-95 percent of all sales to be smartphones this year (O2 in the UK led that charge last year as you can see in the slides below). In the meantime, the adoption rate will lead the U.S. finally to be able to claim that more than half of all consumers will own smartphones. The U.S. is also, overall, accounting for about 40 percent of all smartphone sales worldwide. The total worldwide base of mobile subscribers now stands at 6 billion, and while it took 20 years to reach the first billion, the speed at which this has accelerated is pretty remarkable: Sharma notes that it took only 15 months for that number to go from 5 billion to 6 billion. As you would expect, a lot of the growth now is coming from developing countries but still the numbers are astounding. He notes that together China and India are adding 75 million new subscribers every quarter to the global base, and points out that China alone already has 1 billion mobile subscribers, the first country to reach that milestone, and that India currently has the highest subscriber growth rate. But India may, at best, be an opportunity for the future rather than today. Sharma points out that India monthly ARPU is an “anemic” $2.50. “Even with a signficant subscriber base, there is going to be a general lack of opportunity in the market for the next couple of years relative to other markets,” he writes. In contrast, the early adopters of Japan have helped that country remain in the lead for mobile data usage, with some 60 percent of ARPUs attributable to data. And because the U.S. has nearly the same proportion, but is significantly bigger, it is currently leading the world in terms of data revenues as well as overall ARPU revenues. Still, the tide is turning: A number of emerging nations are now in top 10 mobile nations by subscribers, he says. They include Brazil, India, Russia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Mexico, while Korea, UK, Italy and Germany “have dropped off or slipped in rankings.” Patents . Although we’ve had a lot of noise about patent acquisitions, purchases and lawsuits around internet and (specifically) social media patents, Sharma points out the mobile continues to lead the field with patent applications, and that mobile companies are filing more in the U.S. than in Europe — on average 1.7 times more. He notes that in the U.S., the biggest patent holders are IBM, Microsoft and Nokia. In Europe they are Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia and Samsung. Nokia also appears in the list for top-three device patent holders, along with Samsung and Sony. And among carriers, AT&T, NTT Docomo and Sprint lead the charge. That gives pause for thought about what Nokia has and what kind of value the company holds, beyond the cash that has been mentioned several times in the last week as ratings companies continue to downgrade the company. Full slide deck here: Annual state of_global_mobile_industry_2012_Chetan_Sharma_Consulting [Image: .m for matthijs, Flickr ]

Indulge Your Steampunk ...

Google’s promise of bringing morse code to our smartphones may have just been a cleverly crafted joke, but if you’re just tickled by the concept’s delightful sense of anachronism, a new iOS app called TeleTweet should definitely be on your radar. Released by the team from Shacked Software this past Friday , TeleTweet takes that same concept and runs in a completely different direction. Instead of wrapping morse code in a sleek, modern, more user-friendly interface as Google’s own mockup did, TeleTweet aims to send users straight into the past. Maybe I’m in the minority here but I have no earthly idea what sequences of dits and dashes can be converted into meaningful thoughts, so being faced with a handsome (albeit digital) replica of a straight key was a bit off-putting for a few moments. When I realized that I could drag down a full list of letters and their morse equivalents though, that sense of confusion was quickly replaced with a slightly less puzzled sense of amusement. Meanwhile, turning your iDevice to the left or right replaces the straight key with a TeleTweet ticker that slowly scrolls new tweets across the screen. It looks great, but what makes makes the experience stand out is the constant sound of letters being etched onto thin strips of faux-paper. Of course, there may come a time when your thumb grows weary of pounding out dits and dashes, which is why TeleTweet also includes the standard QWERTY keyboard for some traditional two-thumb tweeting. Frankly, I don’t know why they bothered to include it — if you’re the kind of person who would buy this app, it’s probably not because you wanted an easy way to tell people what you did or didn’t just finish eating. TeleTweet isn’t a tool for power users to add to their arsenal of social media penetration tools, nor is it meant for first-time Tweeters to cut their teeth on the platform. There really isn’t a compelling reason to use it other than the fact that it’s all a bit of silly, gorgeous, anachronistic fun, but hey — who couldn’t use a little more of that?

Study: Hispanic Smartph...

Using a smartphone while shopping to find better deals or to look up product reviews is now pretty mainstream. There are some interesting differences between how Hispanics use their phones while shopping compared to the average U.S. consumer, though. While observing 15 Hispanic smartphone owners in Los Angeles and conducting a nationwide survey of 500 Hispanic smartphone users in late 2011, White Horse and digital advertising agency Sensis noticed that Hispanic users often prefer to shop with friends and family members – a use case that most mobile shopping apps currently ignore. The study found that Hispanic users generally care less about reading product reviews while they are shopping and are more interested in the social experience of shopping with others. Indeed, 68% of Hispanic smartphone users in this survey said that they prefer to shop with at least one more person when buying expensive products. Even when they are just buying everyday items, just under 50% said that they would rather go shopping with a family member or friend. The report’s authors argue that the current crop of mobile shopping apps is too “single-centric” for these users. Shopping list apps, for example, should effortlessly sync between different users. When shopping for expensive products, the users in this survey told White Horse, being able to get advice from friends is also more important to these shoppers than having access to product reviews. Indeed, just 38% of Hispanic mobile shoppers in this survey said that they had accessed product reviews on their smartphones. That’s a very small number, given that 68% of all U.S. mobile shoppers say that they have done this. Overall, Hispanics are more likely to use the mobile web than the general market mobile consumer and are also more likely to own smartphones in the first place. Currently, however, most mobile shopping apps don’t really address the way these users shop. Because of this, the study recommends that these apps start adding more social features like automatically alerting friends when you scan a QR code inside a store. If you are interested in more of this data, the full report will be available here on Thursday, April 12.