Thought I would share this interesting titbit for you...
Mobile shopping has a breakout holiday season By Jason Ankeny Comment | Forward | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn
Another holiday shopping season is here--same Black Friday frenzy, same Cyber Monday bargains and same mounting credit card bills as in years past. But something is decidedly different this time around, and it's because holiday shoppers are migrating from the checkout line and the desktop to mobile devices. Yes, Virginia, after roughly a decade of unsubstantiated hype and unrealized expectations, mobile commerce finally has arrived, its promise made real by better devices, more robust networks and a parade of consumer-friendly applications. A new ABI Research survey spanning 2,000 consumer technology users across the U.S. indicates that close to half of smartphone owners have already used their phones for mobile shopping, or will soon; in addition, 53 percent use, or intend to use, their smartphones for mobile banking. Even 17 percent of non-smartphone users surveyed say they're using or planning to leverage mobile banking opportunities.
For proof of mobile commerce's progress over the last 12 months, look no further than digital marketplace eBay: The company reports that Black Friday 2010 sales across its suite of mobile apps almost doubled over the previous year, while its Cyber Monday mobile sales jumped 146 percent year-over-year. eBay adds that its worldwide mobile initiatives remain on track to generate more than $1.5 billion in sales this year, nearly triple the $600 million the company reported in 2009; since the introduction of eBay's first mobile application in July 2008, on-the-go consumers have bought or sold nearly 30 million items. In all, mobile shopping "warriors" (i.e., hyper-connected individuals) and "warrior wannabes" (moderately connected individuals) will account for $127 billion in consumer spending during the 2010 holiday season--representing 28 percent of the $447 billion the National Retail Federation forecasts U.S. consumers will spend over the period--according to a study published last month by research firm IDC. More than a third of smartphone-carrying consumers indicate increasing readiness to use their mobile devices to shop more effectively and efficiently, especially in traditional brick-and-mortar retail stores, IDC notes; shoppers are searching for price and product information, checking merchandise availability, comparing prices at nearby stores, browsing product previews and purchasing goods.
The 2011 holiday shopping season will raise the stakes even higher. Twelve months from now, Isis--the nationwide mobile commerce network formally announced last month by Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ), AT&T (NYSE:T) and T-Mobile USA--should be humming along in trials across the nation, enabling subscribers in test markets to make point-of-sale purchases via mobile device. Carriers aren't the only ones throwing their considerable weight and influence behind m-commerce heading into the new year: This week, Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) introduced Android 2.3, a.k.a. "Gingerbread," the first iteration of the Android mobile operating system to integrate Near Field Communications technologies. Google CEO Eric Schmidt first revealed the company's m-commerce aspirations last month, stating some future Android devices will contain NFC chips enabling users to "bump" their phone against participating retailers' point-of-sale technology, funding purchases without cash or credit. And don't forget about the growing legion of banks, credit card providers, retailers and mobile software making their own bets on m-commerce--the platform has finally achieved critical mass, and while questions remain around fragmentation and standardization, too many organizations have too much at stake for those challenges to slow the momentum too dramatically. It's taken far longer than many hoped or expected, but this year, m-commerce is finally poised to celebrate a green Christmas. -Jason
