Stats & Trends

Mobile Industry Statistics

• By 2013 more people will use mobile phones than PCs to get online (Gartner 2011)
• 47% of consumers confirm they use their smartphone to search for local information such as a local store they want to visit. 46% of consumers look up prices on a store’s mobile site, and 42% check inventory prior to shopping in the store (Source: Local and the e-tailing group, 2012).
• Nearly two out of three shoppers use at least one device to research and purchase while shopping, and 28% use two devices at a time. More than one third of shoppers made at least one purchase with their mobile devices during the past six months. Tablet shoppers have an even higher propensity to make a purchase on the device with one in four having purchased six times or more in the past six months (Source: Local and the e-tailing group, 2012).
• 62% of shoppers search for deals digitally for at least half of their shopping trips (Source: GMA/Booz & Company Shopper Survey).
• 50% of U.S. cellphone users have smartphones (Source: Nielsen, 2012).
• 66% of Americans ages 24-35 own a smartphone (Source: Nielsen, 2012).
• 80% of mobile users prefer locally relevant advertising and 75% are more likely to take an action after seeing a location-specific message (Source: Mobile Audience Insights Report from JiWire, 2012).
• 52% of adult cell phone owners use their devices while in a store to get help with purchasing decisions (Source: Pew American & Internet Life Project, 2012).
• 65% of mobile users said they used their mobile device to find a business to make an in-store purchase (Source: Google, 2011).
• 29% of users will look to mobile devices to learn about new products or services, 27% will use their handset when making a purchasing decision and 15% of shoppers will use their mobile device to make a purchase while in a store this holiday season (InMobi Holiday Mobile Shopping Study).
• Not only will consumers use mobile devices to research products, but over 21 million, or 36%, plan to make purchases directly from their mobile devices. (InMobi Holiday Mobile Shopping Study).
• More than 60% of mobile buyers will make mobile purchases while at home (Source: Ipsos and PayPal Survey, 2011).
• 53% of the “on-the-go” U.S. audience is willing to exchange their location in exchange for more relevant content and better information, including mobile deals (Source: JiWire, 2011).
• More than 33.3 million U.S. consumers already engage in shopping-related activities on their mobile phones, 7%, or 2.3 million, of those consumers have made a purchase on their devices (Source: research firm Experian Simmons, 2011 Mobile Consumer Report)
• Nearly half of consumers (47%) have accessed customer reviews in-store using their mobile device, with men (55%) more likely to access these reviews in-store than women (39%) (Source: Shop.org, comScore and Social Shopping Labs, 2011).
• 41% of smartphone owners have made a purchase from their mobile phone. Of those, 16% bought apparel; 15% food and beverages; 11% toys and games; 11% electronics; 8% home goods; 4% sporting goods; 4% books; 3% jewelry; and 8% other products (Source: Chadwick Martin Bailey, 2011).
• 56% of people believe mobile can make the shopping experience more enjoyable (Source: Lightspeed Research, 2011).
• 58% of mobile shoppers are age 18-34 and 34% of mobile shoppers make $100,000 or more a year (Source: comScore/Millennial Media Mobile Retail Study, 2011).
• 13.1 million consumers access retail content via mobile phones with 8.2 million of those visiting mobile commerce websites (Source: comScore/Millennial Media Mobile Retail Study, 2011).
• 31% of consumers research a product on their mobile device before buying it in-store, while 40% of consumers research a product from their smartphone before purchasing it online (Source: JiWire Mobile Audience Insights Report Q1 2011).
• 78% of retailers plan to invest in mobile commerce this year (Source: The E-tailing Group Inc, 2012).
• 59% of consumers use their phone to perform mobile shopping activities from home while 28% use their phone in the retail store to perform mobile shopping activities (Source: 2011 Experian Study).
• 47% of consumers who have made a mobile transaction in the past year expect the experience on their mobile devices to be better than the experience in-store, 80% expect the experience to be better than or equal to in-store and 85% expect the experience to be better than or equal to online using a laptop or desktop computer (Source: Harris Interactive & Tealeaf Survey, 2011).
• Within the 49% of mobile users who have made a mobile purchase in the last six months, 84% look for local retailer information, 82% find online retailers, 73% find a specific manufacturer or product website, 71% learn about a product or service after seeing an ad, 68% find the best price for a product or service, and 63% search before purchasing in a store or from a catalog (Source: Performics 2011 Mobile Search Insights Study, conducted by ROI Research).
• Over 70% of iPhone owners report using applications on their smartphone’s web browser to help them while shopping in-store, and 41% make purchases directly from their phones (Source: Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate Research Technologies, 2011).
• 48% of consumers conceded they use their mobile devices to look up product ratings or to find promotions (Source: Oracle, 2011).
• 49% of consumers who use the mobile web at least once a week made a purchase on their mobile device in the past six months (Source: ROI Research Inc., 2011).
• In 3 years, it is predicted that 24% of retailers will have annual sales of 15% or greater coming from their mobile channel (Source: RSR Research, 2011).
• 78-84% of consumers now rely on their social networks when researching new products (Source: IBM Report, 2011).
• 62% of smartphone users said they have purchased physical goods from their mobile devices in the last six months (Source: Adobe Survey, 2011).
• Among smartphone owners, 48 percent prefer to visit a retailer’s mobile website and 38 percent prefer a mobile application (Source: InsightExpress, 2010).
• By 2015, it is predicted that mobile shopping will account for $163 billion in sales worldwide, 12% of global ecommerce turnover (Source: ABI Research, 2010).
• 73% of companies are planning an investment in mobile channels in 2011 with almost half planning to move into mobile commerce (Source: Econsultancy’s Customer Engagement Report).
• 69% of retail executives said mobile is an important strategic initiative (Source: NRF 2010).
• Mobile commerce showed 86% year-over-year growth from 2010 to 2011 (Source: Appcelerator and IDC as reported by Mobile Commerce Daily).
• Mobile commerce sales will reach $23.8 billion in 2015 (Coda Research Consultancy, 2012).

More Mobile Industry Statistics

• By 2015, 81% of U.S. cell users will have smartphones (Source: Goldman Sachs, 2011).
• Android is expected to have 31% market share by 2016 (Source: IDC, 2012).
• 53% of American consumers use their smartphones to access search engines at least once a day (Source: Google and Mobile Marketing Association Survey).
• Globally, 80% of consumers have used computers to access the Web within the previous seven days. 60% used their mobile devices to do so (Source: Google and the Mobile Marketing Association Survey).
• By the end of 2011, Android is predicted to have nearly 40% of the total global market share, with Symbian at just over 20%, the iOS platform with 16% and RIM 14.9% (Source: IDC 2011 report).
• US mobile subscriptions officially crossed the 100% penetration mark in Q4 2010 (Source: Chetan Sharma Consulting).
• The smartphone market is now larger than the PC market. Smartphones outsold PCs in Q4 of 2010 101 million to 92 million (Source: IDC).
• Smartphones and tablet computers will increase mobile Web traffic by 26 times during the next four years (Source: Cisco Systems, 2011).
• 86% of mobile internet users use their mobile device while watching TV with 37% of those browsing the internet for non-related TV material (Source: Yahoo, 2011).
• The number of smartphone users worldwide is predicted to exceed 1 billion by 2014 (Parks Associates, 2010).
• 25% of US mobile web users only access the web from their mobile phones (Source: On Device Research, 2010 as reported by MobiThinking).
• It is predicted there will be 80 million new smartphone users in 2011 added to the already existing 60 million consumers who already own one (Nielsen, 2010).
• It is expected that half of the US population will use a smartphone by the end of 2011 (Asymco.com, 2010)
• More than 65 million smartphones were estimated to ship to North America in 2010 (Canalys, 2010).
• Mobile is predicted to be bigger than the internet in 5 years (Morgan Stanley, 2010).
• 74% of online retailers have already developed, or are currently developing, a mobile strategy (Forrester Research study produced in conjunction with Shop.org, 2010).
• The number of available mobile retail applications has increased 350% from 2009 to 2011 (Acquity Group).
• Apparel, accessory and footwear retailers plan to spend an average of $65,000 on mobile this year (Internet Retailer, 2012).