Using demographic differences to future-proof your mobile experience strategy

Last updated: 16 October 2019

Wherever your organization sits within the mobile experience value-chain, it’s important to be able to really drill down into your audiences’ nuances to ensure you’re developing future-proof strategies.

­This is precisely why we commissioned a survey into how consumers anticipate the mobile revolution developing. Asking 1,969 smartphone users in six countries, we gained valuable insights into perceptions of mobile experience ownership.

The full length report, “Connected Living 2025: Mobile Customer Experience”, provides a useful insight into what end users expect their mobile experiences to look like in the next decade. And to help hone it down even further, I’ve taken a closer look at how age and location affect these expectations.

Age isn’t just a number when it comes to mobile

Given that anyone over 30+ can remember a time when life was not conducted almost exclusively through mobile devices, while those under may struggle; and those over 50 have on the whole been later adopters, it seems sensible to assume that those in different age ranges would, broadly speaking, have different expectations of their mobile experiences.

With this in mind, we examined our research results in detail to find out how things differed between three main age groups, 15-30, 31-49 and 50+ years.  The results proved to be very interesting! Overall, results from millennials are much more similar to that over 50+ age group than anticipated – for example: results from both groups tend to be similar for expectations towards smartphone evolution.

  • 15-30 year olds are most expectant of hardware providers being most responsible for mobile experience. They’re also the most confident in cooperation between stakeholders abolishing international roaming charges.
  • 31-49 year olds are the most confident that smartphones will become the main form of ID, as well phones being capable of driverless car control.
  • 50+ year olds fully expect the smartphones to become flexible and foldable by 2025. They’re also insistent that cash and traditional cards will still be in use.

Location, location, location

Similarly, given that certain countries and cultures are renowned for their fast uptake of technology or caution to new things; we thought it would be interesting to see how location impacted responses so that anyone operating or looking to expand to these markets can tweak their offering accordingly. The results were fascinating… although perhaps not hugely surprising to those who believe in cultural stereotypes.

  • Germans still prefer to use cash for payments, over and above their smartphones. They’re also the most reluctant of all of the countries we surveyed to share their personal data with large companies. This may have something to do with the government’s strict data privacy laws.
  • Brits don’t expect much when it comes to smartphone technology evolution. And have little confidence in cooperation with other countries and governments to improve the end user experience. Perhaps not entirely surprising given just over half the population voted in favor of Brexit.
  • Collectively Americans don’t share a singular consensus on the future of the mobile, perhaps unsurprising given the size of the country, and the many demographics and income levels there.
  • French consumers are the least confident when it comes to inter-country co-operation regarding roaming. They’re also unwilling to share their personal data with large companies.
  • Brazilians are the most willing to share personal data with large corporations and believe that the mobile experience will continue to fall into the hands of OEM manufacturers in the run up to 2025.
  • Chinese consumers say they will continue to hold Mobile Network Operators most responsible for their mobile experience over the next decade. They are also the most confident that mobile devices will become the preferred form of payment, over cash and cards.

Ultimately, knowledge is power, particularly if you are trying to capitalize on consumers’ appetite for mobile and want to stand-out in the increasingly crowded marketplace. MNOs, OEMs and OTT providers will all need to cater their offerings to meet the demands of their particular target markets; a deeper understanding of how demographics such as age and country of residence will certainly help in those efforts.

To see the complete picture, make sure you read our white paper and summary infographic. And let us know your thoughts by tweeting to us at @GemaltoMobile, or posting a comment below.

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