There’s money to be made in mobile

The ever-increasing mobile population is triggering a rise in users not only sourcing information on their handset device, but also purchasing goods and services through it.

Mobile industry group AIMIA’s 9th annual Australian Mobile Phone Lifestyle Index for 2013 released this week shows 54 per cent of more than 2300 respondents made online purchases using their mobile phones. Of these, 45 per cent made two to three purchases in the last month and 38 per cent claim they will increase online spending in the next six months.

Digital content for the mobile phone, such as apps, video clips and games, was the most common type of purchase at 65 per cent. This was followed by tickets (53 per cent), books (34 per cent), clothes and jewellery (both 32 per cent), consumer electronics (19 per cent), services (12 per cent), DVDs (10 per cent), toys (9 per cent) and groceries (6 per cent).

Of the 82 per cent of respondents who had downloaded applications on their mobile phones, 62 per cent paid to do so. More than a third paid between $2-2.99, with 32 per cent paying $3-5.99, 17 per cent $1-1.99, 9 per cent $6-10, and 4 per cent more than $10.

The number of people paying for applications in the $2-5.99 price range has also increased since last year by 29 per cent. In addition, more people this year are purchasing apps in the $6-10 price range, increasing from 7 per cent in 2012 to 9 per cent this year.

The number of respondents that agreed to receive SMS or MMS messages from businesses has steadily increased since 2011, reaching 63 per cent this year compared to 57 per cent in 2012 and 47 per cent in 2011. Forty-three per cent agreed to one to five businesses sending messages.

The bulk of businesses sending consented messages were the banks at 58 per cent, with health and beauty providers at 27 per cent. Other retail and department stores at 21 per cent, and all other types of businesses such as travel, restaurants, reached less than 20 per cent of respondents.

With online shopping increasingly becoming popular among consumers, the survey found 28 per cent of respondents decreased in-store purchasing since started making purchases through their phones.

Just shy of 50 per cent are ‘somewhat satisfied’ with their mobile retail experience, and 30 per cent are ‘very satisfied’. Seventeen per cent are neutral, 4 per cent are somewhat dissatisfied and only 1 per cent are very dissatisfied.

Debit or credit card, PayPal and iTunes were the most popular ways to make payments through mobile phones.

The survey also found Apple continues to dominate the market, with 68 per cent of the 1298 tablet users owning an iPad, and 45 per cent of 2040 smartphone users owning an iPhone. However, Samsung tablet users increased from 7 per cent in 2012 to 12 per cent in 2013.

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