Thursday, June 10, 2010

Mobile Phone Adoption Steps Backward as 23 Million Cash-Strapped Consumers Drop Out

Various cellular phones from the last decadeImage via Wikipedia


Javelin: Smartphones Buck the Trend and Adoption Soars, Boosting the Mobile Banking Populace

San Francisco, CA, June 8, 2010 
– A new Javelin Strategy & Research report issued today – 2010 Mobile Banking Behaviors: Fewer Handsets in the U.S., yet Smartphone Growth Exceeds Expectations – finds that the economy sucker punched overall mobile phone adoption, which dropped sharply from 85% in 2009 to 74% in 2010. The 23 million consumers who cancelled their contracts apparently considered having a mobile phone a luxury; millions of other consumers had an opposite response as smartphone adoption soared seven percent from a year ago.

Android adoption, which still dwarfs that of the iPhone, is growing at an astronomical rate. “Android and iPhone owners by far are the biggest users of mobile banking. They are typically younger, on-the-go consumers who use smartphones as their primary tool for communication – including monitoring their bank accounts and making mobile payments,” said James Van Dyke, Javelin President and Founder. “While mobile banking stalled in 2010 as consumers expressed concerns about security and financial institutions focused their attention on the fallout from the economy, the increase in smartphone usage bodes well for the future of mobile banking.”

Financial institutions can look to how consumers use their mobile phones – text messaging, taking photos, emailing and browsing web pages – for clues to their mobile banking interests – receiving text-message alerts, remote deposit capture, mobile person-to-person (P2P) payments and transferring money between accounts.  

The 2010 Mobile Banking Behaviors report provides insight into who mobile bankers are and what they want and offers guidance to financial institutions on how to capitalize on this market. It also assesses the risks and rewards of creating applications for the mobile-banking friendly users of Google’s open Android platform and Apple’s closed iPhone platform.

Selected Key Report Findings – 2010 Mobile Banking Behaviors

  • One in five of all U.S. adults now own a smartphone.

  • Consumers cite a lack of perceived value, concern about security and cost among the biggest reasons they don’t use mobile banking.

  • Mobile banking is done primarily through mobile Internet browsers.

  • Only 18 of the top 40 U.S. banks offer mobile banking.

“Large numbers of consumers are switching financial institutions because they want mobile banking,” said Mark Schwanhausser, Senior Analyst, Multi-Channel Financial Services. “FIs need to focus their attention on this burgeoning market and develop a triple play approach of browser, text and application-based mobile banking offerings to maintain consumer loyalty and give consumers the ease-and-convenience options they want.”

Javelin’s 2010 Mobile Banking Behaviors report is based on data collected online between April 2009 and March 2010 from three random-sample panels totaling more than 10,990 consumers and includes online-banking data of all consumers.

About Javelin Strategy & Research 
Javelin provides superior direction on key facts and forces that materially determine the success of customer-facing financial services, payments and security initiatives. Our advantages are rigorous process, independent position and expert people. For more information about this or other Javelin reports, please visit www.javelinstrategy.com/research or contact Liz Travers at (925) 225-9100 ext. 31 or etravers@javelinstrategy.com.

Note: To arrange an interview with a research analyst and/or view available research (available to qualified members of the media), please contact Liz Travers at (925) 225-9100 ext. 31 or etravers@javelinstrategy.com.


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