Author: JT

Survey shows that consumers are showing strong interest in mobile commerce but remain concerned regarding security

Bain & Company, a global management consulting firm, has released the results of a new survey that focuses on mobile commerce. Throughout the world, mobile shopping and payments have become quite popular among consumers. These people tend to be quite reliant on their mobile devices, using smartphones and tablets quite frequently in their daily life. The survey from Bain & Co. accounts for 25,000 respondents across five countries and aims to shed light on how their view mobile commerce as it exists today.

Consumers show they are somewhat unwilling to make mobile purchases in a physical store

According to the survey, more than half of respondents noted that they were aware of mobile payments. This awareness is highest in Western Europe, where 70% of respondents noted that they knew what mobile payments were and how to make a payment from a smartphone or tablet. While awareness is high, only a quarter of respondents to the survey said that they were willing to make mobile payments in stores. Online payments were considered more attractive and many respondents suggested that paying online from a mobile device was more secure than using a device in a physical store.

Security concerns prevent many people from participating in mobile commerce

Security is one of the most significant challenges that face the widespread adoption of mobile commerce today. Many consumers are worried that by participating in mobile commerce their financial information will be exposed to exploitation. While consumers are concerned for the security of their financial information, the survey shows that as much as 27% of respondents were willing to make a mobile payment in-store.

High profile crimes keep people wary of mobile commerce  and shopping in general

Mobile commerce is becoming more accessible, but ongoing concerns regarding security are likely to inhibit widespread adoption for some time. Some of the security concerns that consumers have are somewhat misguided. These concerns are, however, augmented by recent spates of high profile data theft and hacking. Such events tend to spark serious doubt on mobile initiatives.

The massive corporation hopes to intensify its engagement within the continent.

Intel Corporation has recently revealed its intentions to enhance its African engagement by making strategic investments in local startup businesses in order to help to promote software and mobile app development within the region.

The growth of the internet economy in this continent has been considerable and is handing the company an opportunity.

According to the vice president and general manager, EMEA at Intel, Christian Morales, the primary reason behind Intel’s choice to plant its feet more deeply in the local mobile app development is the growth that the online economy is seeing there. He explained that the company is making highly strategic investments of its capital into startup businesses that have been growing their experience over the last three or four years and that now require a “world-wide footprint”.

Investments into these mobile app development businesses will be of a minority nature.

The goal is to allow the startups to have the capital that they require to expand, without actually taking them over. According to Morales, Intel is making this move because “we see the potential in local applications and software in Kenya and other countries in Africa.” This announcement was made alongside the company’s unveiling of its two new microprocessors.

Those new microprocessors are a quad-core mobile Atom and a duo-core 64 it Atom. They have been launched with the promise to help to boost the experience for mobile users in terms of performance, speed, and energy consumption. Intel has placed high hopes in this tech in order to give it the power it needs for a more significant share of the mobile market space. The company, said Morales, was encouraged in this arena by the success of its Yolo smartphone, which was released in Nairobi in 2013.

Beyond its intention to invest in African startups, Intel has also shown interest in working with local mobile app development companies through its Developer Zone Program. That program provides local software and application developers with free support and tools by way of training to create their apps based on Intel’s own architecture.