• by Aaron Baar , August 9, 2011

In case one needed more evidence that the smartphone has changed consumers' shopping and entertainment experiences, consider this: about one-tenth of the American population has used a cell phone to help in shopping-related services, and roughly a third expects it to become the centerpiece for their entertainment needs in the future.

According to a new report from Experian Simmons, approximately 33.3 million consumers are using a cell phone for shopping-related activities. The uses range from researching products and pricing (which 15% of cell phone owners say they do every month) to scanning barcodes (8%) to making purchases directly from their phones (7%).

"[The number is] just a fraction of the population, but being that it's such an early trend, [it's] got a lot of room to grow," John Fetto, senior marketing manager for Experian Simmons, tells Marketing Daily. "One of the things that has to be in place for that number to grow is that more smartphones need to be in more people's hands."

Among consumer electronics, smartphones (or at least phones with more capabilities than simply dialing numbers), are moving from luxury to necessity. According to the Consumer Electronics Association, which published its mid-year forecast last month, smartphones will be the industry's primary revenue driver, with a 45% increase in unit shipments and $23 billion in revenue in 2011. As penetration increases, consumer interest in shopping via smartphone will also increase, Fetto says.

"If [consumers] don't have smartphones, they're not even aware that it's something that's even possible," Fetto says. "Being aware is step one. Step two is people have to be exposed to some of the offerings that are out there."

That assertion is backed up by the report, which notes that 15% of adult mobile phone owners were interested in technologies that would help them make in-store purchases from their phones (up from 10% who said the same in February 2009). Among iPhone owners, the interest doubles to 30%.

At the same time, mobile consumers are expecting their cell phones to become the dominant media device of the future. According to the research, 29% of current cell phone owners believe their phones will be the primary device for their entertainment needs. Already, 56% of smartphone owners are using their devices to access the Internet and 18% of all cell phone owners are watching video (either streamed or uploaded) on their cell phones.

"It's another thing that people are now aware of, having had smartphones for a number of years," Fetto says -- "that their smartphones can provide them a lot of entertainment and access to other media."