Mobile Phone Transactions To Be Worth £151bn by 2013
Despite the downturn in the mobile phone market with regards to handset sales, industry analyst Juniper Research has predicted an explosion in the purchasing of goods on those handsets in the next five years.
They forecasted that the payments via mobile of both digital and physical items could exceed $300bn across the planet by 2013. That’s a lot of Leona Lewis ringtones, but also includes the buying of books, games and CDs. Juniper realises the infrastructure for this is not ready for this kind of expansion, urging companies to take advantage of the “significant and immediate” opportunities in the arena of the mobile internet.
The report’s author, Howard Wilcox, talked of the potential in this emerging market: “They [retailers] need to move quickly to exploit the opportunity presented, and ensure that they maintain ease of use for their customers who are already familiar with web shopping from their PCs.”
To paraphrase, Wilcox sees mobile commerce as one big chicken waiting to get plucked.
The prevalence of smartphones and 3G connectivity is giving consumers the freedom to blow their cash on the move, and the future of advertising has the potential to target people based on location, for example only whilst on public transport or at sporting events.
The two big markets for mobile e-commerce are Western Europe, who are in fact mostly buying Leona Lewis ringtones via SMS, and the Far East, where Japanese folks are big on buying tangible stuff over the web.
So, get ready to be bombarded with carefully selected spam everywhere you go, lucky consumers that you are…
Source: silicon.com
