Getting smarter – UK top of the league for smartphone adoption

July 2011 - Tim Parmee

Commuters in Seoul, South Korea, were recently presented with a new way to order their weekly shopping on the subway home – a virtual supermarket. This digital storefront allows customers to pick their items by scanning QR codes, and pay for them through the phone itself.

Although the virtual supermarket was set up as an advertising campaign to promote Tesco’s South Korean stores, it raises some interesting ideas about how and where we use our phones.

Although not quite on the level of South Korea or Japan, the UK is one of the most enthusiastic adopters of mobile technology. A third of us are already using smartphones, the highest in Europe, with 17.2m apps being used every month – and this number is growing as handsets and monthly rates get cheaper and more competitive.¹

Although smartphone use is dominated by games (36%) and social networking (23%), the range of applications is broadening as we get more comfortable with our mobiles.²

The popularity of the QR code, for example, has more than doubled here in the UK since last year.³

40% of us recognise the distinctive pattern, and at least 20% of 18-24 year olds scan them regularly for product deals, vouchers and media promotions. With free code-reader apps available for every smartphone brand, and an audience that has more than doubled since last year, expect to see companies applying codes in increasingly clever, creative and more ubiquitous ways.⁴

Half of all smartphone users in the UK are using their devices to go online several times a week, or even more than once a day. Whether finding out local information, managing their email or simply browsing, consumers are using their smartphones as mobile computers. UK businesses, however, are struggling to capitalise on this shift – only 17% have websites that are optimised for mobile browsing and take advantage of the smaller screen and touchscreen interface.⁵

Mobile payment will transform the market even more. Already, 29% of us are using our smartphones to make purchases.⁶

However, with the introduction of near field communication (NFC) technology into new devices, this figure will see a sharp rise. NFC allows wireless transactions using your smartphone (similar to a London Transport Oyster card), making the payment process even quicker and easier. Services such as Google Wallet, Isis and Serve are predicted to total $50bn by 2014, and won’t stop there.⁷

The UK is getting increasingly mobile, and increasingly smart. We’re getting more confident in the services our phones offer us, and more comfortable with using them to interact, download and even purchase. A modern smartphone is a computer, a marketing platform – and may even become a replacement for your wallet.

As mobile technology advances, we are quickly adapting and increasingly craving clever ways to use our smartphones to gather and share information. In a year or two, even the idea of a virtual supermarket will seem quaint and old-fashioned.

1, 2 – ‘Smartphone Apps in Europe: The 8th Mass Market Media Channel’, Flurry, June 2011
3 – ‘Global Growth in Mobile Barcode Usage Q1/2011′, 3GVision, April 2011
4 – ‘QR codes gaining popularity amongst UK consumers’, Kinetic, June 2011
5, 6 – ‘Global Mobile Research: The Smartphone User & The Mobile Marketeer’, Google/MMA, June 2011
7 – ‘Goodbye Wallets! How Mobile Payments Are Becoming The New Credit Card’, G+, July 2011