Mobile shopping by smart phone users breaks the halfway mark

Almost half of all smart phone users in the United States have already made purchases or plan to do so soon, according to a new survey from ABI Research. The survey of 2,000 smart phone users also found that 53% use or plan to do mobile banking on their device.
“These are very exciting findings for merchants and service providers promoting mobile commerce,” said senior analyst Mark Beccue. “We see mobile commerce in the United State finally starting to achieve a mass market appeal. It’s not just smart phone owners: non-smart phone mobile users’ interest in mobile banking and commerce services, while lower than that among smart phone owners, is also on the rise, with 17% of non-smart phone users surveyed using or intending to use mobile banking services.”
Mobile commerce is clearly getting a boost and a lot of attention of late. Isis, a new venture between AT&T Mobility, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA Inc. is beginning to build a nationwide mobile commerce network with Discover Financial Services and Barclay Plc.