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Posts tagged NFC
IAB reveals consumers’ spend on mobile increases
8 months ago
IAB research reveals the average mobile transaction value increased by £5.29 in 12 months, a rise of 43%.
New research by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) looks at consumers’ attitudes and opinions on M-Commerce. The study, which is the second wave of M-Commerce consumer research to be released by the IAB, was based on over 1,000 interviews (nationally representative sample of mobile owners).
The IAB partnered with research agency Work to look at 4 key areas of M-Commerce; researching on mobile, experience enhancement, purchasing direct to bill and purchasing on card / bank details. The study showed that although general M-Commerce uptake had been relatively flat from 2010-2011, the amount consumers were spending per transaction on mobile increased by £5.29, a rise of 43.3% to £17.49. The results also highlighted a change in the reasons why people use M-Commerce, as it moves away from being seen as an ‘experiment’ (25%), towards being the ‘easiest way to do it’ (42%).
Interestingly even though the barriers to using M-Commerce in 2011 remained much the same as in 2010 for consumers the feeling that mobile internet is ‘too expensive’ has reduced by 16% and the preference for PC over mobile has declined by 7%.
Websites are the preferred platform for M-Commerce with 40% preferring to go direct to a brands site to buy a product, compared to 17% preferring an app. Furthermore, consumers appear to spend more on sites, as the average transaction was £20.77 compared to just £13.15 via an app.
Alex Kozloff, senior mobile manager, IAB said “It has been interesting to see from this study that the same people who were using M-Commerce a year ago continue to use it in 2011- but this time are spending significantly bigger amounts on their mobile phone. Furthermore, there is clearly a consumer appetite to use M-Commerce in store, so it will be fascinating to see consumer adoption of NFC as the technology becomes more commonplace in the UK.”
Nokia Goes NFC: First NFC Enabled App In Ovi Store
A recent update to Nokia’s Symbian operating system (called Anna) activates the NFC chip installed in their C7 phone and the first application featuring NFC technologies has just been added to Ovi Store. Xchange app lets user exchange business cards, photos and other information by touching other NFC-enabled devices. After the touch, information is sent to users by email and contact details are automatically saved in the contacts section. Symbian’s update signifies Nokia’s efforts to reassure developers and consumers that the company is not abandoning the platform and is going to support it until at least until 2016. The updates will be available this week in several countries including the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland and India, with more to follow over the next three weeks, said Nokia today in its blog.
Look at the Mark Selby’s interview from Nokia.
Although a long time in coming, the update potentially puts millions more NFC smartphones into the pockets of consumers, with some estimates placing C7 shipment figures at more than 5 million worldwide.
The update activates the NFC chip that has been in the C7 since the smartphone began shipping last October. Nokia had originally announced the forthcoming Symbian update in April, and it was expected to be available earlier.
Nokia has already begun shipping new C7s with the Symbian update onboard, though those shipments only started in recent weeks. Nokia shipped an NFC version of the phone, called the Astound, in the United States through T-Mobile USA earlier in the year.
The update improves the user interface and other features for the C7 and for other non-NFC Nokia phones, the N8, E7 and C6-01 (read more here).
Worldwide Mobile Payment Users to Reach 141 Million in 2011 – Gartner Says
9 months ago
New research from Gartner predicts that 141 million people around the world will make some form of mobile payment this year, up by 38.2% from 2010. The research also shows the volume of those transactions is set to reach $US86.1 billion, up by 75.9% from last year as well.
However, the research also notes that mobile payments aren’t taking off in several countries, especially in the developing world, citing “the complexity of the NFC” model.
“The biggest hurdle is the need to change user behaviour by convincing consumers to pay with mobile phones instead of cash and cards,” research director Sandy Shen told Boy Genius Report.
“Thanks to the success of mobile application stores, such as Apple’s App Store, and the efforts in driving mobile sales by major retailers, such as Amazon and eBay, merchandise purchases far outweigh other use cases in developed markets, which include North America and Western Europe.”
Gartner Says:
Mobile Payments in Developing Markets Growing Slower Than Expected
Worldwide mobile payment users will surpass 141.1 million in 2011, a 38.2 percent increase from 2010, when mobile payment users reached 102.1 million, according to Gartner, Inc. Worldwide mobile payment volume is forecast to total $86.1 billion, up 75.9 percent from 2010 volume of $48.9 billion.
Despite these strong growth projections, Gartner analysts said the mobile payment market is growing slower than expected.
“In developing markets, despite favorable conditions for mobile payment, growth is not as strong as was anticipated. Many service providers are yet to adapt their strategies to local requirements, and success models from Kenya and the Philippines are unlikely to be translated to other markets,” said Sandy Shen, research director at Gartner. While developing markets have favorable conditions for mobile payments, such as high penetration of mobile devices and low banking penetration, this is no guarantee of success, unless service providers adapt their strategies to local market requirements.”
“In developed markets, companies are trumpeting the prospects of Near Field Communication (NFC) without realizing the complexity of the service model. We believe mass market adoption of NFC payments is at least four years away,” Ms. Shen said. “The biggest hurdle is the need to change user behavior by convincing consumers to pay with mobile phones instead of cash and cards.”
Gartner expects Short Message Service (SMS) and Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) to remain the dominant access technologies in developing markets due to the constraints of mobile phones. Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) will remain the preferred mobile access technology in developed markets, where the mobile Internet is commonly available and activated on the phone. Mobile app downloads and mobile commerce are the main drivers of WAP payments, and WAP will account for almost 90 percent of all mobile transactions in North America and about 70 percent in Western Europe in 2011.
Money transfers and prepaid top-ups will drive transaction volumes in developing markets. These are seen as the “killer apps” in developing markets, where people value the convenience of sending money to relatives and topping up mobile accounts. This is most obvious in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, where these two services will account for 54 percent and 32 percent of all transactions in 2011.
“Thanks to the success of mobile application stores, such as Apple’s App Store, and the efforts in driving mobile sales by major retailers, such as Amazon and eBay, merchandise purchases far outweigh other use cases in developed markets, which include North America and Western Europe,” Ms. Shen said. “We predict that in 2011, merchandise purchases will account for 90 percent and 77 percent of all transactions in North America and Western Europe, respectively.”
Additional information is available in the Gartner report “Market Trends: Mobile Payments Worldwide, 2011.” The report is available on Gartner’s website at http://www.gartner.com/resId=1714114
