Singapore leads the world in smartphones – with 89 per cent penetration

Tech-centric Singapore has the highest smartphone ownership in the world, says a new report from ZenithOptimedia.

The firm’s annual “New Media Forecasts” study says 89.0 per cent of Singaporeans had a smartphone in 2014, and that this will leap to 97.0 per cent by 2018.

After Singapore, Spain and Ireland follow with 86.7 per cent and 83.0 per cent, respectively. The other top ten markets are: South Korea, Norway, Japan, Austria, Sweden, the Netherlands and Hong Kong.

Globally, smartphone penetration is already past 50 per cent in many countries – but it will be at two thirds in three years time. The report found that, in 47 leading countries, smartphone penetration rose from 41.6 per cent in 2013 to 49.5 percent in 2014. It predicts 55.7 per cent in 2015 – and 66.5 per cent in 2018.

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740 million wearables will be in use in 2016

The market for wearables is set for a major surge, with 740 million units in use by the end of next year, and 1.1 billion units by 2019.

Research from Gartner says the overall installed base of electronic comms devices (including wearables, phones, tablets and PCs) and is on pace to reach 8.3 billion units in 2018.

Gartner believes that users will start adding to their trove of devices (rather than consolidating them inside a phone, as they have in recent years). It projects that mature market users will carry three to four personal devices with them.

It also predicts that, by 2019, 20 per cent of personal devices will record emotions in addition to physiological data like heart rates, blood pressure, sleep patterns and so on.

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18 per cent of US shoppers have used their phones to make an in-store payment

A new report from Deloitte says the percentage of people making proximity mobile payments more than tripled in 2015.

The “2015 Global Mobile Consumer Survey: The Rise of the Always-connected Consumer” report revealed that in 2014, just five per cent of consumers had made a mobile in-store payment.

This year, it’s 18 per cent, with three per cent doing so every day. Naturally, there are strong variations by age. 36 per cent of 25-to-34-year olds have tried mobile payment in store, compared with just four per cent of 65-to-74-year olds.

Other statistics from the study include:

• Four per cent of consumers in the US look at their phones more than 200 times a day
• 97 per cent of smartphone owners have used their phone at least once to take a photo

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Mobile spending around a quarter of all shopping on Cyber Monday

The annual online sales day, Cyber Monday, recorded a new record in 2015, with mobile making a huge contribution.

According to IBM, sales were up 17.8 per cent over the same day in 2014. Mobile/tablet commerce accounted for 47.9 per cent of all traffic, and 27.6 per cent of all sales. That’s 25.7 per cent up on last year.

Smartphone shoppers spent $102.02 per order, desktop claimed an average order value of $128.00, and tablets $124.14.

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China Mobile is targeting 500 million 4G users by end of next year

The world’s biggest MNO wants the world’s biggest 3G user base. China Mobile, with over 800 million subscribers, has declared a target of 500 million on 4G by 2016.

As of September this year, China Mobile had built over one million base stations and its 4G subscribers stood at 248 million. The company says it sold over 256 million 4G smartphones in 2015.

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