More than 9 million U.S. mobile subscribers report they used their mobile phones to make a purchase of some kind in the last four months, a report released last week by Nielsen Mobile said.
The study, of more than 30,000 U.S. wireless subscribers, also found that about half of all those who surf the Web over their handsets expect to use them to buy goods or services in the future.
About 9.2 million U.S. mobile customers, or 3.6% of the total, bought something over their cell phones in Q1 2008. Men are slightly more likely to have pursued mobile commerce than women, with 4.5% of males reporting compared to 3% of females.
Among age groups, the 25-34 segment shows the most m-commerce activity. In that group, 5.4% reported making mobile purchases in Q1 2008, compared to 4.5% of those 13-17, 3.6% of the 18-24 group, and 3% of those 35-54.
But among those who used text messaging to buy something via mobile, the 13-17 age group took the lead for the quarter. About 3.7% of them used SMS to close a mobile purchase. That makes them about 48% more likely to do so than the average subscriber, only 2.5% of whom shopped via SMS in the quarter. About 3% of those in the 18-24 and 25-34 groups did so.
Nielsen’s findings indicate that all told, 6.5 million customers have used text messaging to buy something.
Among barriers to mobile commerce expansion, the research found that 41% of mobile data network users say they worry most about security over those networks. Twenty-three percent said their biggest concern was their carrier’s charges for airtime or use of that mobile data network. And 21% said they didn’t trust that a mobile transaction had been completed.
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