By Emmanuel Okwuke / Senior IT. Correspondent
Ericsson’s 10 hot consumer trends 2015: Smartphone to replace entire purse by 2020.
Ericsson’s survey on 10 hot consumer trends 2015 shows that 48 percent of smartphone owners would rather use their phone to pay for goods and services. 80 percent believe that the smartphone will replace their entire purse by 2020.
These findings are part of Ericsson ConsumerLab’s annual report now in its fourth edition, shows that consumers want technology and connectivity to be integrated into all facets of daily life – in everything from bathroom mirrors, to sidewalks and medicine jars.
Also, the report shows that Consumers are becoming more comfortable with ideas that once seemed beyond imagination – like robots in the home and mind sharing. For instance, in 2015, consumers will watch streamed video more often than broadcast television.
Head of Research, Ericsson ConsumerLab, Michael Björn, says: “The cumulative effect of smartphones becoming part of mainstream society is astonishing. As consumers, we try out new apps and keep the ones we think improve, enrich or even prolong our lives at such a rapid pace that we don’t even notice that our attitudes and behaviours are changing faster than ever. Services and products that quite recently seemed beyond imagination are now easily accepted and believed to rapidly reach the mass market. With only five years until 2020, the future really does seem closer than ever before”.
The insights in the report “10 hot consumer trends for 2015 and beyond” come from Ericsson ConsumerLab’s global research programme, with a special focus this year on smartphone owners aged 15 to 69 in Johannesburg, London, Mexico City, New York, Moscow, San Francisco, SâoPaulo, Shanghai, Sydney and Tokyo – statistically representing the views of 85 million frequent internet users.
These are the 10 hot consumer trends for 2015 and beyond: Media use patterns are globalising. Viewers are shifting towards easy-to-use on-demand services that allow cross-platform access to video content. 2015 will be historic as more people will watch streamed video on a weekly basis than broadcast TV.
The report also shows that consumers show high interest in having home sensors that alert them to water and electricity issues, or when family members come and go.
Also, according to the survey, new ways to communicate will continue to appear, offering us even more ways to keep in touch with our friends and family. “Many smartphone owners would like to use a wearable device to communicate with others directly through thought – and believe this will be mainstream by 2020.
The report notes that though the idea of smart cities is intriguing – but a lot of that intelligence may actually come about as a side effect of the changing everyday behaviors of citizens. As the internet makes us more informed, we are in turn making better decisions. Consumers believe traffic volume maps, energy use comparison apps and real-time water quality checkers will be mainstream by 2020.
Source : Independent