Category: Mobile Commerce

Ireland is lukewarm when it comes to mobile payments

Accenture, a market research firm, has released a new report concerning Internet services and mobile payments in Ireland. The report shows that Ireland is considered one of the leading countries when it comes to calls made through the Internet through services like Skype. Ireland is, however, lagging behind in terms of mobile payments. Mobile commerce has seen sluggish adoption throughout Ireland despite the interest that consumers have in online shopping and using their mobile devices in daily life.

Internet calls are popular among consumers

According to the report, approximately 74% of Irish consumers currently own smartphones, with one-third of consumers owning tablets. This is somewhat higher than the global average; 67% and 24% respectively. Approximately 34% of Irish consumers use their mobile devices to conduct Internet calls, higher than the global average of 28%. Many consumers favor Internet calls due to quality services and the convenience such communication services offer.

Mobile payments have yet to win favor

Mobile payments have not received the same favor from Irish consumers as Internet calls have, however. The report shows that only 12% of consumers currently participate in mobile commerce. One-third of consumers claim they plan to make mobile payments within the next 12 months. While many consumers are not participating in mobile commerce, 48% of these consumers claim that they would be willing to switch providers if they are offered better mobile payments services.

Mobile commerce may play a major role in the future

In Ireland, mobile payments are primarily made for tickets for events and transportation. Some consumers prefer mobile payments for online shopping, but the majority of Irish consumers have yet to warm to the concept of mobile commerce. As mobile technology begins to play a bigger role in the lives of consumers, however, mobile commerce is expected to gain traction. Eventually, Ireland may see a significant spike in mobile payments, driven by the introduction of comprehensive and efficient services that meet the needs of consumers.

The majority of companies have not fully implemented a policy for the use of wireless devices.

According to the results of a study that have recently been released, only 14 percent of companies have put a fully developed mobile security policy into place for their computer networks.

At the same time, the number of threats and incidents within that environment are rapidly rising.

Furthermore, the study also discovered that the majority of the companies that do not have mobile security policies in place also have no intention of limiting the use of personal smartphones and tablets for work-related purposes. The research in question was the Global Corporate IT Security Risks 2013 study From B2B International, which was conducted among businesses worldwide, this spring, in collaboration with Kaspersky Lab.

B2B International’s statement about the mobile security study was that many companies had experienced data leaks.

It revealed that among the respondents of the survey by B2B International, 6 percent of the companies had experienced a mobile security data leakage of confidential information at least once within the previous 12 months. Though this may represent an increase of only 1 percent over the figures from 2012, the attacks on smartphones and tablets led to a larger number of critical data leaks than any of employee fraud (at 4 percent), phishing attacks (at 5 percent) or corporate espionage (at 3 percent).

According to the release regarding the study’s results, “The reason is obvious; more mobile devices – smartphones and tablets – are being used at work on a daily basis. These devices are also often owned by the employees themselves, and so are used for personal as well as business purposes.”

It also pointed out that while the ability to add both corporate and personal data (such as apps and contact lists) on a single device is highly convenient, it also means that there is a considerably higher mobile security risk to the business. Almost 65 percent of the participants in the survey admitted that they allowed their workers to bring their own devices (also known as bring your own device – BYOD – where workers use their own personal smartphones and tablets for work purposes). This is clearly a growing threat to corporate IT infrastructure security when the fact that no protection policies have been put in place.