With Americans liking most things instant, it’s only natural that many of them rely on their mobile phones to satiate their give-it-to-me-now demands.
And today, the Pew Research Center published data that offers qualitative proof that consumers are relying on their mobile phones for real-time information. Indeed, 51% of respondents said they have used their phone at least once a week to get information “they need right away,” while just a little over a quarter of respondents said they had a situation that caused them to have “trouble doing something because they did not have their phone at hand” within the past 30 days.
That data points to a deep mobile dependency and should serve as happy tidings for financial services players who have been going gaga for mobile banking and payments for years now. Plus, the data becomes even more promising for mobile financial services when segmenting out the younger demographics. Indeed, 64% of the 18-to-29-year-old group told Pew they have used their phones to quickly retrieve info.
Another trend gleaned from the data should also buoy the mobile financial crowd’s spirits. Pew found that text messaging and picture-taking continue to top the list of ways that Americans use their cell phones. To me, those usage trends — supported by our own recent Bank Innovation Monitor data — also have great implications for real-time banking text messaging alerts and RDC. In short, those two services of banking, which are already resonating well with consumers, have the potential to really grow users since the majority of Americans are used to doing them anyway.
Still, a less-than-amazing nugget also bubbled up in the data. According to Pew, consumers need to take time outs from their cell phones, too. Just shy of 30% of cell owners powered down for a period of time to take a breather from the technology, Pew found. As dreams of digital wallets are catching many FIs’ eyes, I’m not so sure what the implications of mobile timeouts have when cell phones become, well, everything for one’s financial life.