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American consumers are increasingly opting to embrace a lifestyle that can be facilitated with your mobile phone, according to a Deloitte survey of more than 2,000 U.S. consumers.
This year’s survey results showed a dramatic increase in the use of mobile phones to make in-store payments with a nearly four-fold increase from 5 percent in 2014 to 18 percent today.
At the same time, it remains the largest untapped opportunity for device usage with approximately 20 percent of consumers using their phone to make a payment in-store.
The most popular uses of mobile payments were for public parking (19 percent), gas station purchases (18 percent), coffee shops and fast food dining (17 percent each).
The survey also found that nearly one-third of those that browse shopping websites make an online purchase using their mobile phone.
Consumers between the ages of 25 to 34 drove the largest portion of mobile payment activity at 36 percent, with age groups 45 to 74 accounting for less than 10 percent.
The survey also revealed that interest in autonomous cars ranks far higher than interest that new products typically achieve with 58 percent of consumers considering eventually owning or riding in one.
One in five consumers under the age of 44 are ready to own one now. The stresses of driving (such as safety) emerged as the clear rationale for interest in autonomous vehicles.
“Based on our survey results this year, we see strong interest from consumers across the board for interest in IoT,” Craig Wigginton, vice chairman and U.S. telecommunications leader for Deloitte, told eWEEK. “As noted, car-based IoT is leading the way with more than two-thirds of consumers interested in the technology, and when we look at these connected car solutions that some of the largest carriers in the U.S are offering, we see very strong support for growth in this area.”
Surprisingly, the youngest and oldest demographic recorded in the survey – 18 to 24 year-olds and those 65 or older – shared the same greatest concern for security-related issues at 53 percent, versus privacy-related issues at 35 percent for 18 to 24 year- olds and 33 percent for those age 65 or older.
“We would normally expect the youngest generation to be the least concerned with security and privacy,” Wigginton said. “While we can’t say for certain what is driving this, one possibility is that this youngest generation is an early adopter and uses mobile technology more than virtually anybody else, and as a result, they simply have greater proximity and visibility to security and privacy breaches, and they have to deal with these threats on a more regular basis than does someone who only uses the technology intermittently.”