A poll has now shown that retirees in Canada are likely to have cell phones, though not the latest tech.
A recent report making mobile commerce news has revealed that while the vast majority of seniors living in Canada are now using a cell phone, only a small number of them have changed those mobile devices to the more modern smartphone version.
The Media Technology Monitor report could prove to be important information for marketing and commerce.
The research was conducted over the phone with the participation of 6,014 English speaking Canadians. The interviews were held during the spring and fall of 2013, in order to help to track the trends regarding ownership and usage of mobile devices. This included measuring the movements of these gadgets among those within the senior demographic. For the purposes of this study, seniors were defined as individuals who were 68 years old or older.
Approximately 61 percent of the seniors who were polled said that they owned mobile devices.
In all, there were 774 seniors who participated within this research. Though only 61 percent of them said that they had cell phones, in the younger age groups, a much higher 87 percent said that they carried these gadgets.
Similarly, only a tiny 13 percent of seniors said that they owned smartphones, where a notably higher 63 percent of younger Canadians said that they carried these devices.
Among those that did have smartphones, seniors seemed to prefer iPhones the most, though only just slightly more than Android based devices and BlackBerry phones.
A miniscule 7 percent of the senior participants in this study said that they used their smartphones for connecting to the internet. Younger respondents responded that 54 percent of them connected to the internet using their gadgets. Furthermore, only 2 percent had ever tried to use social media on their devices. Among the younger users, about a third of smartphone users had done so. Around 17 percent of seniors had sent text messages at some point, whereas 76 percent of the other respondents said that they had.
Approximately 12 percent of the seniors polled had tablets among their mobile devices. Most often, this consisted of an iPad.
New report highlights the growth of mobile commerce across 13 countries
MEF, a global trade association focused on the mobile space, has release the first report in its Global Consumer Insights Series on Mobile Money. The report highlights the growing popularity of mobile payments across 13 countries. Mobile commerce has been making strong growth in many of the world’s most prominent markets. Much of this growth is being driven by the growing number of people that have smartphones and tablets and how much they are beginning to use these devices in their daily lives.
Report shows 15% of device users have made a mobile purchase in 2013
According to the report, some 15% of device users throughout 2013 made some form of mobile payment from their smartphones or tablets. The majority of these people made a purchase using some kind of mobile wallet application. These applications primarily leverage NFC technology, which allows digital information to be transmitted over short distances. Mobile wallets that do not make use of NFC technology are becoming more popular, however, as NFC-enabled mobile devices are still somewhat rare.
Mobile money users are becoming more important to businesses around the world
The report shows that mobile money users tend to spend more on individual purchases than others. The report notes that mobile money users are 10% less likely to make low-value payments and 14% more likely to make mid-value payments. These particular consumers are becoming an important demographic for businesses that wish to engage the mobile audience, especially because these consumers are more likely to participate in mobile-centric initiatives, particularly those that leverage some kind of engagement technology, such as QR codes.
Mobile-only culture is beginning to emerge in developing countries
MEF’s report suggests that a “mobile-only” culture is beginning to emerge in developing countries. This involves people becoming more dependent on their mobile devices and making use of services that are only available through mobile platforms. Mobile banking, for instance, is becoming quite popular and a growing number of consumers are beginning to manage their finances solely through these mobile platforms. Mobile banking is expected to become much more popular than it already is as more financial institutions begin targeting mobile consumers.
