Ericsson outlines 10 hot consumer trends for 2013

Ericsson outlines 10 hot consumer trends for 2013

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.,--Infrastructure maker Ericsson Inc. may be more on the network side of things, but that hasn’t stopped the firm’s ConsumerLab from coming up with a list of top trends it sees moving into 2013.

After polling some 100,000 individuals in more than 40 countries and 15 megacities, the firm believes it has identified some key movements for the coming year, including how the cloud is reshaping consumer needs, how women seem to be driving the smartphone market and how the younger demographic is influencing society via the internet.

The first trend, according to Ericsson’s report is that cloud reliance is reshaping device needs. “More than 50 percent of tablet users and well above 40 percent of smartphone users in USA, Japan, Australia and Sweden appreciate the improved simplicity of having the same apps and data seamlessly available through the cloud on multiple devices,” said the report.



The second trend, said Ericsson, is the death of the task list and the rise of impulse decision making from a tablet or handheld device. Purchase intent, the firm found, was becoming ever more spur of the moment and was higher for tablets compared to desktop PCs, and for smartphones compared to laptops.

Bring your own broadband to work is the third trend being pinpointed by Ericsson, with a massive 57 percent of smartphone users admitting to using their personal smartphone subscriptions in the workplace. “Personal smartphones are increasingly being used for work, to send emails, plan business trips, find locations and more,” said Ericsson’s report.

City slickers are going more mobile too, according to the trend report, accessing the internet always and everywhere. Total smartphone subscriptions will reach 3.3 billion by 2018, according to Ericsson, and mobile network coverage is one of the most important drivers of satisfaction for city life says the report.

Making an entrance at number five is the important issue of personal social security networks, which has apparently arisen as a result of economic turbulence and a growing distrust of traditional structures and authorities. Consumers, according to the report, are increasingly placing that trust instead in their personal communities. “Personal networks online serve as a safety net and social media is shaping up to be a serious contender to the traditional job agency,” said the report.

The smartphone market, it seems, is also finding itself increasingly driven by women. New figures clearly show that women drive mass-market smartphone adoption and 97 percent of female smartphone owners also use SMS. A total of 77 percent send and receive photos, 59 percent use social networking, 24 percent check in at locations and 17 percent redeem coupons. Ericsson found that the numbers were lower for men in all of the aforementioned areas.

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