Consumer Mobile Engagement Methods (% of Respondents) | |||
| Use and Plan to Use | ||
Engagement Method | Already Use | Next 12 Months | 12-24 Months |
Coupons | 16% | 38% | 16% |
Text coupons | 25 | 47 | 9 |
Regular bar code | 22 | 22 | 22 |
2D bar code | 21 | 23 | 17 |
RFID for payment | 2 | 9 | 17 |
Consumer self checkout | 9 | 9 | 9 |
Competitive pricing | 7 | 18 | 7 |
Source: IHL Group, November 2010 |
The study data indicates 85% of US retailers support consumer use of the iPhone/iPod platform, and 88% plan to do so in the future. This current support rate dwarfs the 55% support of the next-most-popular consumer mobile platform among retailers, the iPad platform. However, 72% of retailers plan to support consumer iPad use in the future.
While only 50% of retailers currently support consumer use of the Android platform, 79% plan to support it in the future. Windows Mobile has 43% current support and 53% planned support, while Blackberry has slightly lower current support (40%) but slightly higher future support (58%).
Consumer Mobile Platform Support (% of Respondents) | ||
Platform | Current Use | Future Use |
iPhone/iPod | 85% | 88% |
iPad | 55 | 72 |
Android | 50 | 79 |
Blackberry | 40 | 58 |
Windows mobile | 43 | 53 |
Windows CE/7 | 23 | 36 |
Source: IHL Group, November 2010 |
Retailers display different preferences for supporting mobile platform use by their employees, and at much lower percentages. The iPhone/iPod and Windows Mobile platforms are tied for second place with 42% current support. However, 67% of retailers plan future iPhone/iPod support, while only 41% plan future Windows Mobile support, implying a small number of retailers currently supporting employee use of Windows Mobile devices plan to end it. Android only has 26% current support, but comparatively high 41% planned future support.
Perhaps explaining the popularity of text coupons, 94% of mobile phone owners have text included in their phone plan. This makes texting by far the most popular feature of US consumer mobile phone plans. Other popular features include email (80%) and mobile web (78%).
The data for this study were obtained by performing a web-based survey during the August-September 2010 timeframe. A total of 570 responses were used, of which 66 were retailers.
For the study from the IHL group, please access the PDF file here.
I think this is interesting but with the explosion of Smartphones and their being a exponential growth over the next 6-12 months of 50% penetration, I would expect their to be a much stronger move towards QR Code Coupons tied to LBS. At least this is where I'm positioning our platform.