Key consumer findings indicate we have become a mobile-centric, multitasking nation
A new study released by Deloitte today confirms we are a nation of phone obsessed multi-taskers, with American consumers looking at their smartphones in the aggregate eight billion times per day and increasingly doing so while engaged in other activities like watching television, shopping and even while talking to friends and family.
The fifth edition of Deloitte's "2015 Global Mobile Consumer Survey" uncovered many other interesting findings around American behavior, trends and general lifestyle shifts associated with the unprecedented usage of mobile devices today. These include:
Consumers are more distracted than ever before
This year's survey results show unprecedented levels of multitasking while interacting with mobile devices, which has translated into consumers being more distracted than ever before.
Sixty one percent of American consumers indicate that they sometimes, if not often, use their smartphone while out shopping.
Forty seven percent of consumers use their smartphones while talking to friends and family.
More than one-third of all consumers use their smartphones predominately without the prompt of an incoming message or alert.
Contrary to common trending, the youngest demographic, age 18 to 24, didn't report the most mobile phone use while watching television "at least occasionally" – those aged 25 to 34 took the top spot.
Text messages replaced checking emails as the first thing people do on their smartphones every day at 31 percent vs. 24 percent respectively; in fact, emails experienced the largest year over year decline of any activity.
American consumers show no signs of switching off
The increased levels of screen time that come from consumers becoming more and more attached to their mobile devices continues to spread across generations, in both the speed at which we first look at our phone during the day, as well as the number of times we look at our phones. Consider that:
Upon waking, 17 percent of smartphone owners, check their phones immediately, up from 14 percent a year ago, while 43 percent of consumers check their phones within five minutes, up from 39 percent a year ago.
When it comes to bedtime, 13 percent of smartphone users look at their phone immediately before preparing to sleep, while 33 percent check their phones within five minutes before going to sleep.
Four percent of consumers in the U.S. look at their phones more than 200 times a day.
Nearly half (48 percent) of consumers check their phones up to 25 times per day.
Ninety seven percent of smartphone owners have used their phone at least once to take a photo and 74 percent to share. Interestingly, the most intense photo takers are either young (between ages of 18 to 24), or female smartphone owners who take and share photos daily.
Mobile payments are on the rise
The use of mobile devices to make in-store payments has nearly quadrupled over last year, with an increase from 5 percent in 2014 to 18 percent today. Even more exciting is the promise of future adoption, particularly among the tech-savvy millennial.
The 25 to 34 year old demographic is driving the majority of mPayments activity for in-store purchases at 36 percent.
The most popular uses of mobile payments were for public parking (19 percent), gas station purchases (18 percent), coffee shops and fast food dining (17 percent each).
At the same time, mPayments remains a large untapped opportunity, with half of consumers citing that they don't view mobile in-store payments as secure enough. Moreover, 36 percent of consumers simply do not see any benefits to using mobile phones for in-store payments.
"We believe that education of consumers on the benefits of advanced security features of some forms of mPayments technologies could yield additional growth opportunities for the sector," said Craig Wigginton, vice chairman and U.S telecommunications sector leader, Deloitte & Touche LLP.
Consumer wellness is more holistic and seamlessly connected
As wellness continues to transition away from a passing trend towards a meaningful and permanent lifestyle journey, consumers are looking for ways to track, share and connect their fitness, health and diet information. With the rapid adoption of fitness trackers, consumers are more inclined to purchase wearable devices such as fitness bands and smartwatches to support their wellness journey in a seamless and uninterrupted way.
Ownership for fitness bands doubled year over year with approximately 10 percent of consumers owning a fitness band.
Of those consumers who own fitness bands, 37 percent have reported monitoring their fitness level daily while 27 percent have reported monitoring their caloric intake and diet daily. These numbers jump to 66 percent for monitoring fitness and 47 percent for monitoring caloric intake when looked at weekly.
While more consumers own fitness bands than smartwatches, smartwatches drive greater usage. Today, 74 percent of consumers use their smartwatch on a weekly basis vs. 66 percent who use their fitness band weekly.
